


No Place to Call Home

by d1sco_bee, Wheel_Boar_Scoot



Category: Dream SMP - Fandom
Genre: Canon Divergence, Dream Smp, Ghostbur, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, SBI Family Dynamic, Swearing, l'manburg, sleepy bois inc - Freeform, tommyinnit exile, triggering topics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28371201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/d1sco_bee/pseuds/d1sco_bee, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wheel_Boar_Scoot/pseuds/Wheel_Boar_Scoot
Summary: After Tommy gets exiled, life starts to go downhill, until he has finally had enough of Dream. Although severely injured, he heads out into the forest, only to fall unconscious and be found by his family, who are obviously very angry at Dream.The Sleepy Bois need revenge and Dream is going to feel the full force of what a family can do, unless he can outsmart them of course.this fic was planned in 2020, so any lore or arcs that happened/ will happen in 2021 won't be included (with a few exceptions but I'm not gonna tell you those because it will spoil things :D)
Comments: 57
Kudos: 518





	1. Lost ~ 1 ~ 30th Dec 2020

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was started on the 21st of December 2020, so if any plot developments happen since then that change the storyline, we probably won't incorporate them into this work.
> 
> The date in the chapter title is when the specific chapter is set.
> 
> Written by me, d1sco_bee, as well as my friend Wheel_Boar_Scoot.
> 
> Pls don't repost as your own lol

_⚠️ Content Warning: Abuse, injury, blood, slight strong language, suicidal thoughts ⚠️_

It was dark.

Memories stopped to haunt him and with a jolt he realised they were his own, forcing his worst memories and his biggest regrets into his head.

Erets betrayal. The L’manburg election. The festival. The explosion...

The exile.

He saw Tubbo taunting him replaying the moment when he ordered Tommy, his best friend, out of his country, the country that they built together. But that wasn’t even the worst of Tommy’s nightmare; he saw Tubbo explaining to the citizens of Tommy’s beloved nation about how their Vice President had gone on holiday for a bit.

He'd lied to the people. What a great president.

Reality hit Tommy like a punch to the gut and he awoke with a start from his restless night. Drenched in sweat he slid out of his sleeping bag- it was one of the only things he had now. It had been a week (maybe more, the days had started to blur) and Tommy still had nothing, in fact he had even less then he did to begin with.

His clothes were almost in tatters yet Dream refused to give him new ones. Dream refused to give him anything yet he was his only friend. He was the only one that visited him. No one else cared about him. No one cared at all.

But today everything would change, and what little he had could turn into nothing.

Tommy had been trying to hide what little possessions he could scavenge from Dream for the whole of his exile. It wasn't that he didn’t trust Dream, he just wanted his own private things, his own belongings so that he could keep his sense of self that was quickly deteriorating as the days went by. He hid these things underneath Logstedshire in the hopes that Dream wouldn’t be able to locate them.

~

It was evening when Dream finally sailed over the horizon, axe in hand, docking on the beach with oh so little effort.

“Dream!” Tommy croaked excitedly, not realising how much his throat hurt until trying to speak.

Dream, however, wasn't in the mood for small talk today, “Tommy I know you are hiding your items. We can do this the easy way or the hard way, it’s your choice.” His face was covered by his mask, but Tommy could tell that Dream was angry.

However, Tommy stayed silent, those were his items, and he didn’t have to tell Dream anything. Even if he was his only friend, those items meant something to Tommy and he wanted, no, he _needed_ to keep them.

Taking Tommy’s silence as his choosing the hard way, Dream stepped towards the boy, who took a step back as he realised he couldn't stand his ground this time.

“Fair enough Tommy," Dream muttered into his ear before slapping him around the face with so much force that the teenager was knocked to the ground. Not yet pleased with his work Dream grabbed Tommy by what was left of his shirt and dragged him back over to his tent.

“You have 10 seconds.” Knowing what was about to happen yet still slightly stunned from the slap, Tommy stumbled over to his chest and took out three pictures. One was a family photo of him, Phil, Techno, Will and Tubbo back when everything was simpler; one was a selfie he'd taken with Tubbo in Pogtopia; the other was him, Tubbo and Wilbur in front of the newly built L’manburg.

He had only just grabbed these pictures when he heard the terrifying sizzle of TNT behind him. Clambering to his feet, he desperately tried to get out of his tent, but he was too late.

With one blast, tnret was gone, and the only thing that remained was a crater. Inside this crater laid the unconscious form of Tommyinnit.

Once he was satisfied with his work, Dream walked back to his boat and sailed away into the night, leaving Tommy to defend himself from the mobs that had started to spawn in what was left of Logstedshire.

~

By the time Tommy awoke, the evening had been and gone; it was pitch black and must have been about ten pm. Despite the freezing winter night, Tommy's body was boiling. He was sweating profusely and was starting to have trouble catching his breath. Both his clothes and matted hair had been singed by the explosion of his tent and his once blue eyes were now a pale grey colour, one not so dissimilar to his unhealthy skin.

His head was so painful, making his thoughts foggy and unclear. He couldn’t understand where he was or why he was there, all he knew was that he wasn’t safe and he had to get out. While he was trying to think, he felt something was dripping down the back of his head. He reached his hand behind his hair and it came away scarlet with blood.

That wasn’t a good sign but nevertheless he had to get moving if he wanted to survive. Slowly but surely he pushed himself up onto his feet, grabbing onto the side of the crater for support, wincing as his foot touched the ground.

Tommy couldn’t help feeling dizzy, he longed for Dream or Phil or Wilbur or even Fundy to be there with him but he was destined to get through this alone or die trying.

Either way, at this point death didn't seem like such a bad option; in fact it seemed like the only viable solution. Grabbing as many materials as he could find the energy to gather, Tommy started building straight up, fully prepared to jump off when he got to the top, but something stopped him.

Whether it was the voice of reason in his mind, telling him not to act irrationally, or the fact that Tommy wasn’t yet ready to face death, he didn’t fully know, and couldn’t be bothered to find out. Looking over the edge, he saw a small pond, and without waiting another minute to weigh his options, he jumped into it.

The cold water stopped the fall from killing him, but still left him winded, sinking to the bottom, his lungs crying out for oxygen. But still he felt the urge survive, his mind subconsciously taking control, Tommy swam up to the surface and laid down on the soft grass, gasping for every last bit of air. Today was not his time to die, not yet anyway.

_It's never my time to die._

Clumsily, Tommy managed to stand up and make it to the edge of the forest without collapsing, limping from tree to tree for what seemed like hours but what can’t have been more than 20 minutes. Mobs were spawning quicker now; Tommy had been lucky with monsters so far but he was getting weaker by the step. He desperately needed a weapon but was in no shape to craft a good one, let alone one at all.

An hour had passed before Tommy had a semi decent weapon in hand. It was a badly crafted wooden sword, just like the ones he used to play with Techno when he was younger.

By now the small amount of adrenaline he once had was gone and his eyes drooped as he fought to stay conscious. His arms and legs felt like lead, getting heavier with each step he took. Tommy was starving, he hadn’t eaten in the past few days, and the last rags of his clothes were baggier than they had ever been and felt heavier and heavier by the second.

More mobs had started attacking Tommy. A few zombies here, a few spiders there but not enough to overwhelm him; he could deal with the smaller mobs quite easily. It was way past midnight by now, the moon still shone brightly but was fading into the horizon fast, stars retreating back into the darkness around them but it was still hours away from any ounce of daylight.

Tommy had become so disorientated that he didn’t even pay attention to his new surroundings, and soon enough he was in a snowy biome, the frost stinging his bare foot, snowflakes landing and melting on his boiling skin. He was still sweating; he felt like his body had been put in a furnace half an hour ago and not taken out.

Tommy was so exhausted that he didn’t notice the sharp crunch of snow behind him, or the sound of a bow being pulled taut. _THUD!_ An ear splitting scream erupted from Tommy's throat as he landed face first down in the snow, an arrow embedded in his right bicep, blood staining the snow a horrible red colour.

He knew that he was going to die if he stayed still, but it sort of felt nice, the freezing snow cooling his body, numbing the ever-growing pain that was spreading rapidly around him. _THWACK!_ Another arrow grazed the side of Tommy’s chest and buried itself into the snow covered ground.

He was so beaten up that he didn’t get very far even when he tried his hardest to get his body to move, but he couldn't give up. Tommy knew that his family wouldn’t want him to die here alone. Family. Dream said he didn't have a family. Even if he did they wouldn't care if he just lay here for a bit longer… No, he had to push forward.

Trying to push himself into a sitting position was harder than it seemed, being only able to use one arm, and then there was the problem of the skeleton readying it's bow to fire again. Shakily, Tommy got to his feet, and pulled out his sword.

Holding it in his non-dominant hand, he limped towards the bony bastard, slashing wildly until the blade found its target, smashing its bones into small pieces, one of which embedded itself into Tommy’s already numb foot. Tommy’s body had finally had enough. He collapsed against a tree, his bare skin scraping against the bark as he slid down the trunk. Tommy's eyes closed and everything went dark.

~

Technoblade had been living out in the snow for the past few months, sometimes Philza visited, but he was mainly on his own. Phil had come over to stay for the week to work on the bee farm and was still asleep when Techno decided to go for a walk just before sunrise.

These walks were a common occurrence for Techno, as he often went out before dawn to fight some mobs before they disintegrated in the heat of the sun, although today he was slightly later than usual so he would only be able to fit in around ten minutes of hunting before the sun rose.

Techno was taking his usual path when he noticed a pool of blood a couple of feet away. Carefully he approached it and found a small red trail heading deeper into the forest. Curiously he followed it into the undergrowth, and what he saw was definitely not what he had expected.

His little brother lay unconscious by a tree, shivering and sweating, covered in blood, with the left side of his face patchy with a large purple bruise.

“Tommy?” Techno whispered. He could barely recognise the boy; Tommy no longer looked tall and gangly, instead he looked like a frightened child again, reminding Techno of when he found him seven or eight years ago, surrounded by zombies and crying for help.

Techno crouched down next to his brother and, checking Tommys pulse, he recoiled at the heat of the boy's skin. He was burning up and definitely had some sort of fever. He had to get help, “PHIL!” Techno shouted, hoping that his dad would be up by now.

He heard a muffled voice in the distance, “Techno, are you okay?"

“PHIL, COME QUICK!” Techno knelt back down next to Tommy, trying to assess the injuries scattered around the boy's frail body. The next minute Philza ran into the clearing, sword by his side, clearly having already noticed the blood.

“Tommy?" Phil said quietly, dread creeping into his voice.

“I found him here, we need to get him back to the cabin. Now!” Techno replied not taking his eyes off Tommy.

Phil kneeled down next to his sons. “Oh Tommy...” Together he and Techno lifted Tommy into their arms, careful not to touch the wounds on his back. The teenager was worryingly light and thin, and was shaking violently, his ragged clothing keeping in no warmth, yet to the touch he was burning up, and still sweating.

As fast as they could without hurting him, they bought Tommy inside Techno's cabin and set him down on the sofa. Phil would have preferred to lay him on a bed but carrying him up the ladder could cause more injuries, so he had to make do with the sofa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tysm for reading chapter 1, the next chapter will be uploaded soon if I remember lol
> 
> Chapters 1-5 have already been written, so we'll be uploading a new chapter every day or so until we have new writing to post. We've planned a bunch of the plot in advance and are just working out the details before writing it up properly.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and any feedback is very much appreciated, so pls feel free to leave a comment :)
> 
> \- disco


	2. Treatment ~ 2 ~ 31st Dec 2020

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one's a bit short folks, I'll post another chapter later today if I remember.
> 
> Pls don't repost as your own lol

* * *

_⚠️ CW: graphic injuries, blood, mentions of abuse, vomiting ⚠️_

Tommy looked even worse in the light of the cabin; his skeletal figure was pale and ghostly, his skin seemed to barely stretch over his bones. The bruise covering most of his face was getting worse, becoming dark purple in colour.

Now that they were inside, Phil could have a proper look at the shape of the bruise and to his horror, he could see that it was in the shape of a hand. He took an involuntary step back as he took into consideration that someone had done this to his youngest son. All of this was someone’s fault, and whoever they were, they were going to pay for this.

“Phil?” Techno said, concerned.

As much as Techno didn’t make his feelings known, Phil could tell when he was worried, and he knew that Techno loved his brothers. Both of those things were written in his face now. The concern in his eyes as he looked over Tommy was the most Phil had ever seen showing in his eldest son.

“I’m fine," Phil assured him, his composure coming back. "Techno, get me the first aid kit and the potions bag.” The time for talking was over. The mood in the cabin was deadly serious and tension settled all around the room.

They both put on a pair of gloves and leaned in, beginning to work. They started with cleaning Tommy's body so that they could see the full extent of his injuries. Phil sent Technoblade to go and get a damp cloth and they began. It would have been easier if they were able to simply give Tommy a healing potion, but those were dangerous at the best of times, especially if the consumer didn't have enough energy to expel the potion afterwards, and by the looks of Tommy, it seemed as though he hadn’t eaten in days, perhaps even weeks.

Carefully, Techno held up Tommy’s head, allowing enough room for Phil to clean up the large gash on the back of it. Fortunately the gash wasn’t too deep but it was quite big. They decided to just bandage it up for now while they moved onto the larger wounds.

Next was the arrow, it had obviously been snapped in two which had left the head stuck in Tommy’s bicep and the shaft lying in the forest somewhere. Again they moved to do the same thing as the head, with Techno holding the arm while Phil cleaned the wound, but as soon as Techno tried to move his arm, a small groan came from the boy.

“Tommy, It’s Phil, can you hear me buddy?” Phil said in a calm reassuring voice while stroking the kids hair.

“Dad?” Croaked a small voice, before he turned around and vomited onto the floor,

“It’s okay son, I’m here.” Phil replied, worried but staying strong for the boy in his arms. At this Tommy seemed to relax, and he gave a small nod before drifting back into unconsciousness.

Just to make sure Tommy didn’t feel any more severe pain, Techno placed a cloth holding a silvery liquid onto the kids mouth and held it there for a few seconds, after which they could begin the process again.

After cleaning the wound, Phil saw a flaw in his original plan to just pull out the arrow; it was a barbed arrow- no wonder Tommy had groaned when Techno nudged it. This was going to make the process a lot harder, but removing the arrow was safer then leaving it in.

Getting Techno to pour a mixture of a numbing and sterilising potion around the wound, he began to cut around it. Once Phil was satisfied with the cuts, he started on trying to find and take out the barbs. It was a tricky process but in the hands of a professional healer like Phil it was done fairly quickly. Now all that was left to fix up in Tommy's arm was the actual arrow.

“Sorry buddy,” Phil whispered into Tommy’s ear before carefully pulling out the projectile, and soon blood started to pool out of the hole where the arrow used to be. Ready for this to happen, Techno grabbed a new cloth soaked in a healing potion and covered the wound with it.

Leaving Techno to patch up the rest of the arrow wound, Phil moved on to the foot. He hadn’t noticed before but Tommy only had one shoe on, and even the shoe he did have was pestered with holes, and was coming apart at the sole. Who in their right mind would let a sixteen year old go out in the snow dressed like this?

That wasn’t important at the moment; whoever did this wouldn’t be around for much longer anyway, what did matter was Tommy.

His foot was freezing to touch unlike the rest of his body, and there were little cuts all over the sole of his foot as well as a small piece of skeleton bone that had got stuck in it. Phil started with the bone, making sure it wasn’t stuck in his foot too deeply, and wouldn't do any more damage when he pulled it out.

Once deciding that it would be okay, Phil took some pliers and carefully extracted the bone, making sure not to cut anything on its way out. Fortunately, it didn’t but the foot was still bleeding slightly afterwards which Phil stopped with a bit of bandage.

Now that the bone was out, he needed to decide what the best way to treat Tommy’s foot would be, and in the end he settled on simply keeping it warm, so he first bandaged up the whole foot as well as the ankle, which had swollen up considerably. He then took the broken shoe off of the other foot, got a cosy pair of socks from his own room along with a blanket and draped it over the boys feet.

While Phil was treating Tommy’s foot, Techno had moved onto the other arrow wound, which was luckily only a graze.

That just left one other main injury for them to treat- Tommy’s back. To do this they would have to move him, which neither of them wanted to do in fear of hurting him again in this fragile state, however it was something they had to do to make sure the wound didn’t get infected. Slowly they propped him up into a sitting position, Techno holding his shoulders and arms to make sure he didn’t fall, while Phil took a look at his back. Unfortunately it was worse than he thought it would be, but after assessing the injury and removing Tommy's rag of a shirt, he got started.

First he got a cloth with some more healing potion on it and started cleaning the wound, when that was done he took some of the remains of his son's shirt to bandage the wounds. It took him a few minutes to be satisfied with the job until he and Techno slowly laid him back down on the sofa.

The last thing they could to help Tommy was get a damp cloth and put it on his forehead, as well as getting some food for Tommy when he would eventually wake up.

Exhausted, Phil and Techno sat down on the sofa opposite to the sleeping Tommy.

“I’m proud of you, son.” Philza finally said to Techno, breaking the silence, “If it wasn’t for you Tommy would still be out there. He could have died if you didn't find him in time.”

Silence followed and he could tell Techno didn’t agree with what he'd said.

“He shouldn’t even be in this state to begin with! Why was he even out in the forest alone? He’s supposed to be in-” Techno started before Phil stopped him with a hug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tysm for reading chapter 2, the next chapter will be uploaded soon if I remember lol
> 
> Chapters 1-5 have already been written, so we'll be uploading a new chapter every day or so until we have new writing to post. We've planned a bunch of the plot in advance and are just working out the details before writing it up properly.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and any feedback is very much appreciated, so pls feel free to leave a comment :)
> 
> \- disco


	3. The waiting game ~ 3 ~ 1st Jan 2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TUBBO IS IN THIS ONE!! ALSO FRIEND!!
> 
> Pls don't repost as your own lol

_⚠️ CW: Mention of suicide ⚠️_

Over a day had passed yet Tommy hadn’t woken up. His wounds were getting better but his mental state wasn’t. Phil and Techno had been taking shifts to look after him, each sitting with Tommy two hours on, two hours off. Not much had changed in Tommy’s situation- his eyes didn’t even remotely show the spark that they once had, he was still frail and thin, and Phil wasn't able to find an effective way to feed Tommy without him choking it back up. A predominant amount of his body was still covered in bandages and plasters, which were being changed at regular intervals.

Phil had just come back from the potato farm where he had been harvesting that night's dinner and had begun to prepare the harvest in the kitchen when Techno came downstairs looking worried.

“Phil it’s Tommy. His fever's back up and he’s muttering about Dream. I don’t know what to do, Phil. Can you please come and talk to him," Something about the desperation in his eldest son's voice made Phil immediately drop the potatoes and race up the stairs to where Tommy was laying. There was something unnerving about watching his youngest son shake uncontrollably while muttering desperate apologies to a masked twenty one year old man.

However scary this was, it did leave one clear thought in his mind: Dream was the one who did this, and Dream was the one who would have to pay for what he had done to Tommy.

Although it did clear some things up for Phil, he felt unimaginable sorrow towards Tommy, it showed a side of the kid that he tried so desperately hard to hide.

“Shh big man, it’s okay. Dadza’s here, it’s okay…” Phil muttered soothingly into Tommy's ear while stroking his hair the way he used to when he was younger. Phil spent the rest of the day comforting him and assuring the unconscious boy that he was safe from Dream here; that he had people who cared about him and that nothing could hurt him while Phil's around.

That day Phil didn’t leave his son's side, he couldn’t leave the poor guy now, not after everything he had been through. This continued for a few days and Phil refused to swap with Techno, and even refused to sleep or eat.

This worried Techno. He had never seen his father so set on something that he didn’t rest. Phil had always taught him and his brothers that sleep was a necessity, that they need it to think clearly and make good decisions. Finally, after a long while of contemplating and letting Phil stay with Tommy, Techno decided that enough was enough. He couldn’t just let Phil waste away by his brother's bedside- he had to do something.

Calmly walking up the stairs, careful not to make too much noise so he wouldn't alarm Phil, he stood in the doorway of the guest room where Tommy had been staying, and knocked on the door softly to alert Phil of his presence.

“Phil, we need to talk. It’s not right that you stopped caring about yourself as soon as Tommy got worse. You are important too… dad, and you need to remember that. You can’t just sit here all day with Tommy, how about you go get some sleep while I watch over him for a bit,” Techno knew what Phil was about to say but managed to interrupt him before he got to say it,

“I promise I’ll wake you if anything bad happens, just please go take care of yourself, for me?”

Begrudgingly, Phil agreed and went to his room to have a well deserved shower and nap. He thought that it would be difficult for him to get to sleep, but the exhaustion overwhelmed his protests to stay awake and he fell asleep instantly.

After Techno heard Phils gentle snores from across the hall he finally calmed down, happy that the old man had taken a minute to look after himself. A smile settling on his lips, he turned back to sit next to Tommy. Finding that the boy responded better to words and sounds, he decided to tell Tommy a story, like he used to when Tommy was younger.

"Ever heard of Theseus, Tommy?"

~

Techno hadn’t realized how much time had passed since he took over from Phil, he had gotten so carried away in the story that he didn’t even notice when Philza had snuck into the room until he started applauding. 

“Bravo, Bravo! Anyone would tell that you majored in English,” Phil said, a smile planted firmly on his face, 

“You know Techno, I’ve been thinking about what you told me yesterday. Do you mind if you stay and watch Tommy tomorrow? I'm going to go to L’manburg and stock up on supplies.”

Techno knew when his father was lying and it was blatantly clear that this was one of those times, but he decided not to say anything against it. After all, how much harm could Phil cause in L’manburg?

“Of course Phil, just stay safe, and don’t get into too much trouble.” Techno joked, and turned back to his sleeping brother.

It wasn’t long before sunrise came and went, and with it Phil began his long trek to L’manburg, stocked with plenty of food and supplies, just in case something were to happen.

It didn’t take Phil long to reach his house In L’manburg; he had gotten so used to the route by now that he could probably do it with his eyes closed, although that wasn’t to be advised while travelling. It was almost midday when he arrived in L’manburg, where he immediately went into his house to search for supplies and an excuse just in case he got caught. He hadn’t been there very long when he heard a familiar voice from behind him,

"Oh, hi Phil! What are you doing here in L'manburg?" came the voice from his doorway, "Weren't you going to visit Tommy today?"

Phil stopped searching through his chests and looked up at Tubbo, who was standing outside his house. He noticed that his adopted son had changed since they last met- small horns had started to grow out of Tubbo's head which reminded Phil of someone, but he couldn't quite tell who.

"Oh, um, yeah. Hi Tubbo, I was just getting some things for the journey. I thought I left Tommy's gift in here somewhere but I can't seem to find it… aha! Here it is!" He pulled out a shiny music disc with a white ring around the centre.

"I found 'strad' the other day when I was out hunting with Tech- Ghostbur! I was hunting for some food with Ghostbur the other day and a skeleton just happened to kill a creeper and it dropped this disc right here and I'm going to give it to Tommy today. In fact, woah! Look at the time," Phil signaled to a clock hanging on his wall above his door,

"It's almost one! I should get going before it gets dark. Bye Tubbo! I'll just be off to Logstedshire and not anywhere else because Tommy is in Logstedshire. That is where Tommy is and nowhere else,"

Philza tried to make his way past Tubbo and out of his house but the boy moved to block his way.

"Are you sure you're ok Phil? You seem really rambly today," he asked, concerned as he looked up at Phil, who was growing more and more panicked by the second.

"Rambly? Me? Why would I be rambly? I'm just off to visit my son in exile, why would I…" he trailed off, "You told Dream to take Tommy away. You're the reason that he's exiled and now he's-" Phil stopped himself; he couldn't say too much or Techno would be found out.

"He's what, Phil? What happened to Tommy? Phil?" Tubbo asked, growing more concerned and nervous.

"I have to go. Goodbye Tubbo."

Phil pushed past the president and started to run out of L'manburg when suddenly he tripped over what appeared to be a ball of blue fluff.

"Friend! What are you doing, tripping people up? That isn't very nice," Phil heard an echoing voice come from around the corner and looked up to see who it was.

"Phil! Hello! It's me, Ghostbur! I'm sorry that Friend tripped you up, he tends to be a bit clumsy sometimes," a ghostly figure of a 24 year old man in a yellow jumper said as he scooped the ball of fluff (that Phil could now see was a dark blue sheep) into his pale grey arms with a smile.

"Oh hi Ghostbur, um. I kinda have to get going now, I've got to get back to Tommy," Phil said as he climbed to his feet and brushed down his Antarctic Empire robe. "I'll catch up with you later!" He shouted over his shoulder as he continued his way out of L'Manburg, leaving Ghostbur behind who was waving after him as he ran along the prime path.

That was far too close a call for Phil's liking; he shouldn’t have been so nervous when running into Tubbo. That kid knew when things were off with Phil, he always did. But obviously that was to be expected after he raised him for so long. Still, Phil was known for being a calm and collected guy, so when someone bumps into him when he's panicking and rambling on and on with his words, they are surely going to know that something is going on.

Phil was concentrating on his thoughts so much that he didn’t notice the leaves rustling behind him as he passed where the election stand once stood, or the crunch of twigs snapping as he got to the docks. He simply wasn’t paying attention to any of his surroundings, almost walking into the ocean instead of placing down a boat, when he eventually got to the shore.

Finally after an exhausting journey home, Phil arrived back at Technos cabin, only to see none other than Ghostbur's face when he turned around to shut the door behind him.

“Oh, Ghostbur, I didn’t realise you were following me.” Phil yawned, hanging up his cloak as he did so.

Techno, upon hearing Phil's return, came rushing down the stairs.

“Oh good, Phil your back, oh and Ghostbur too.” Techno cringed at his dead brother's name, but Ghostbur didn’t seem to notice. Techno was just about to show him around when all three of them heard a noise from upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tysm for reading chapter 3, the next chapter will be uploaded soon if I remember lol
> 
> Chapters 1-5 have already been written, so we'll be uploading a new chapter every day or so until we have new writing to post. We've planned a bunch of the plot in advance and are just working out the details before writing it up properly.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and any feedback is very much appreciated, so pls feel free to leave a comment :)
> 
> \- disco


	4. Memories ~ 4 ~ 3rd Jan 2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tommy gets kinda pissed haha
> 
> Pls don't repost as your own lol

_⚠️ CW: Mention of abuse ⚠️_

Upon hearing a thump from Tommy's room, Phil, Techno and Ghostbur hurried upstairs and found Tommy sprawled out on the floor. A groan played out of the boys lips followed by,

"I think I fell out of bed. Sorry Phil I might have knocked over a glass of water," he said with a raspy voice.

"Tommy!" The three men shouted and embraced him in a group hug.

"What are you doing? Where's Dream? Why am I here? Technoblade?" Tommy shakily got to his feet using Philzas arm for support, "I hate you Techno, why are you here and why did you hug me?"

"In my defence, this is literally my house and I haven't seen you awake in months. Yeah, ok, we hate each other but we are still brothers whether you like it or not and I was worried about you," Techno retorted at a very confused looking Tommy.

"Brothers? Dream said I have no family. No one who loves me. You aren't my brother, liar, I'd remember that! Remember… What do I remember…?"

Techno and Phil looked at each other, concerned. He doesn't remember us?

“Tommy, I’m going to need you to sit down for me buddy, okay? You're safe here, everything's ok,” Phil said in the calmest voice he could muster.

“NO! EVERYTHING IS NOT OK!" Tommy shouted, surprising himself, before realising what he had done and brought his arm to shield his face and stop the blow that was inevitably coming…

But it never did, and Tommy slowly lowered his arm and looked back at Philza, who looked shocked.

"Tommy… What did Dream do to you?"

“You...you didn't hit me?” Tommy marvelled, “But I shouted at you?” 

“Tommy I would never hurt you. You're my son!" Phil shouted, and Tommy shrunk back from the sudden raise in Philza's voice.

Sensing the tension begin to thicken, Ghostbur decided that he needed to lighten up the mood a bit.

"Hi Tommy! It's me, Ghostbur! Do you remember me? I remember you! You're Tommy!"

"Wilbur…?" Tommy asked, recognising the ghost's kind eyes.

"I'm not him, Tommy. Wilbur was a bad person I think and I made it my mission to not be anything like him. Don't you remember me telling you that when we were building Logstedshire?"

"Logstedsh-... No, I… That's where… Dream…"

"It's ok, buddy. Take your time," Phil whispered, taking the boy into his arms and pulling him into a gentle hug. Tommy wasn't sure what was going on; his mind was fuzzy and confused and he didn’t know where he was or how he got there. But he did recognise that voice, his mind instantly matched it to one that meant safety and comfort.

"Phil? Philza Minecraft?" Tommy realised, instantly accepting the hug from his father.

"That's me," Phil replied, his eyes filling with tears, as he stroked his youngest child's hair. Tommy pulled away, standing awkwardly, his eyes focused on Phil.

"I like your hat. It's the same colour as… ugh my mind is getting all fuzzy, I hate this!"

"Don't worry, Tommy, it's fine. Your head took a pretty nasty beating," 

Tommy’s hand reached up to the side of his face, rubbing the stinging area. It hurt, everything hurt. His whole life was nothing more than horrible injuries after long and painful adventures.

"How did I get here, Phil? Why am I so bruised?" Tommy asked as he walked over to the mirror on the other side of the room. He looked like he hadn't slept or eaten in weeks, which was probably the case. The only part of his body that wasn't either unhealthily skinny or bandaged up was his hair, which appeared to have been brushed. Tommy guessed that Phil had decided to brush his son's hair as he slept.

The swelling in his cheek had gone down but Tommy could clearly see that it was in the shape of a handprint.

"Who did this to me? Technoblade?"

Angrily, Tommy turned to face Techno once again, but Ghostbur put himself between them, trying to keep conflict away as it made his stomach hurt. This burning pain happened often, especially when he was near Philza or L'Manburg. Something must have happened to Wilbur involving those, but Ghostbur was perfectly fine without that knowledge.

"No Tommy it wasn't Technoblade. Technoblade is nice. He wouldn't hurt you." Ghostbur said, trying to reason with his brother.

"That's what you said when he came to Logstedshire. You said you trust him. How do I know you aren't all lying to me?" Tommy replied, and fell down onto the bed, rubbing his aching forehead.

"Tommy. You remember me, don't you? You remember that I'm your dad and that you trust me. Right?" Tommy turned to see Phil looking down at him, and winced as his dad put his hand on Tommy's still healing shoulder. He nodded in reply.

"Ok, so I know for a fact that Techno and Ghostbur here are your brothers, and that they love you very much. Me and Techno have been looking after you for nearly three days. See those bandages on your arm?" Phil asked, gesturing to his son's forearm, which he held up and had started to stare at with curiosity. Clearly he hadn't noticed this yet.

"Yeah, that was Techno. Now he may act like he hates you and wants you dead, but he really doesn't, Tommy. We've been worried sick about you recently and Techno even told you a story yesterday. Did you not hear?"

Tommy sat up and looked at Techno, his expression softening.

"He used to read you that story when you were seven. Do you really not remember?"

Memories start to come back to Tommy: watching Techno and Wilbur sparring and wanting to join in but he was too small; Techno reading Tommy the story of Theseus, but then his thoughts twisted into that war he would never forget, specifically the moment where Techno's eyes gleamed with anger and he shouted "You want to be a hero Tommy? Then die like one!"

"You blew up L'Manburg though. You might be my brother but you blew up the nation that me and Tubbo and Wilbur and fundy and everyone else worked so hard for. You're the reason I got exiled in the first place. If you hadn't blown up my country I wouldn't have needed revenge and I wouldn't have been exiled." Tommy stood up and walked over to Techno, "The whole reason that I'm here in these bandages is because you had to go and mess things up! I don't need your hospitality Technoblade. I can go and take care of myself."

"No, Tommy-" Phil interrupted but was quickly cut off.

"You don't believe me? You don't think that I can fend for myself? Well then watch me. Watch me go right out of that door and never come back, because I can get anything I need on my own. I don't need you and I don't want you around me. I'm going to get my discs back on my own and if you don't think I can then just go ahead and watch me just like… Dream did… Dream… I need to find Dream…"

He tried to push past Ghostbur who was blocking the door to the hallway, but the ghost stayed firmly in place and held Tommy back.

"Tommy, no. You don't need Dream, he's not a good guy!" said Ghostbur as Tommy struggled in his grip.

"What do you mean? Dream is the only person who cares about me. He is my only friend and the only person that visited me when I was exiled. You know what, I could just go and find Dream and then I won't need any of you any more. Actually yeah that is what I'm going to do because Dream has cared more about me than any of you have ever cared about me. Goodbye Philza Minecraft, goodbye Ghostbur. Technoblade, you don't deserve a goodbye."

Tommy managed to finally push past Ghostbur and run down the stairs but as he reached for the handle of the front door, his hand was caught by Phil's.

"Let me go, Phil. You don't need me here,"

"I do Tommy! We all do! You can't go looking for Dream, that man has done some terrible terrible things,"

"You've always said to give people second chances, haven't you? Why is this time any different?"

"BECAUSE HE ALMOST KILLED YOU TOMMY!" Phil finally snapped and Tommy stopped fighting back, his free hand coming up to feel his face which was still bruised from three days ago.

"Dream did this? But I thought he was my friend?"

"Yes, he did, and he is most certainly not your friend. Listen to me Tommy, please. Do not go looking for Dream. The only thing that will come out of that situation is you in a worse shape than you are now. Please, I need to keep you safe," Phil said, his face was heavy and the bags under his eyes were even more prominent under the light of the front room.

Finally, Tommy nodded and took his hand away from the door. Then he threw his arms around his father's neck and hugged him, Phil hugging him back, careful not to hurt him.

Technoblade and Ghostbur watched from the other end of the room and looked at each other.

They used to be so similar, being twins, but over the years they had become so vastly different. Wilbur was obviously… dead, and Techno's face and body had accumulated many scars from his adventures, predominantly a large thin scar that ran from the mid-right of his forehead to halfway down his right cheek. Although being older by no less than two minutes, Techno was shorter than Will by about two and a half inches, however as Wilbur was a ghost, he could easily float up and make that difference gone.

Past Ghostbur's shoulder, Techno spotted a few pieces of paper fall out of Tommy's pocket; he went over and picked them up off the floor. They were the pictures that Tommy had picked up back in Logstedshire.

"Tommy what's this?" He asked, standing up. Recognition flashed in Tommy's eyes and he broke away from Phil's hug.

"Give those back. They're mine," Tommy reached for the pictures but Techno only held them higher above his head.

"If you don't need us then why do you carry this picture with you?" he asked.

"I don't even remember I had that on me, it must have got... stuck in my pocket somehow," Tommy stammered, trying to figure out an excuse on the spot and failing miserably.

"What about the other two? Did they get 'stuck in your pocket' as well?" Phil chimed in.

"Listen man, I don't know why you care so much about these pictures but I need those back. They're the only thing I have left. Everything else got… everything is gone and… Dream…" Tommy ran his hands through his hair with exasperation. Why couldn't he remember anything?

"Well ok, How about we go back to Logstedshire and get your stuff to bring here! I'm sure we can find some things from there-" Ghostbur piped up optimistically but was cut off by Tommy once again.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, GHOSTBUR!" Tommy shouted, causing Ghostbur to step back a little, "My stuff is literally gone. I can't quite remember how it got destroyed, but it's gone and isn't coming back. Forget it, it's just some stupid pictures anyway. Techno, where's your ender chest?"

Techno led Tommy downstairs to his storage room, leaving Phil and Ghostbur alone in the hallway.

"He isn't the same as he used to be, Phil. I don't like this new Tommy. He's really sad all the time and he isn't fun any more," Ghostbur said, breaking the silence.

"I know, but you can't blame the kid. He's been through a lot recently; I'm pretty sure Dream blew up his stuff and… made him look the way he does. He'll come around soon, then you'll have the old Tommy back," Phil replied with a sad smile and pulled his ghostly son into a hug.

It felt weird in physical contact with Wilbur again. The last time they had been this close to one another must have been…

"I'd better be off. That potato farm isn't going to harvest itself!" Phil drew away from Ghostbur and opened the front door, quickly moving his thoughts along. He did not need to deal with that at the moment

"Oh, ok! Don't be out too late! Here, take your coat- it's getting colder now," Ghostbur called after his father and waved from the doorway as Phil went into the forest towards the farm, "Colder. It's getting colder. Snow is cold. I don't like when it snows. It lands on me and it hurts. It sizzles me. Sometimes snow feels hot, like it's melting me. I don't want to melt. Meltbur. Hey, that's a fun word. Meltbur. Meltbur. Meltbur…" he muttered to himself as he walked aimlessly around Techno's house.

"No. Meltbur is bad. Melting is not fun. Oh look! A book!" Ghostbur picked up a leatherbound book that he had stumbled upon on Tommy's desk and opened the cover, "How to Sex 3: an up and coming bestseller… ok I don't think this book will be very fun so I'm just going to put it back and leave. Goodbye Tommy's room that I walked into somehow!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tysm for reading chapter 4, the next chapter will be uploaded soon if I remember lol
> 
> Chapters 1 to halfway-through 6 have already been written, so we'll be uploading a new chapter every day or so until we have new writing to post. We've planned a bunch of the plot in advance and are just working out the details before writing it up properly.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and any feedback is very much appreciated, so pls feel free to leave a comment :)
> 
> \- disco


	5. The Search begins ~ 5 ~ 4th Jan 2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry it took so long, me and disco took a short break over the holidays, but I hope you enjoy :)
> 
> pls don't repost as your own lol

_⚠️ CW: Mentions of suicide, slight strong language, manipulation⚠️_

After he left Tommy to die in the remains of Logstedshire, Dream had sailed back to the mainland of his SMP.

The journey back from Tommy’s exile had been boring to say the least. Nothing even remotely interesting had happened on his travels, the most exciting thing being when a group of dolphins had passed underneath Dreams boat.

However, the tides began to turn a few days later when he finally decided to check in on the teenager, fully expecting to find the dead body of Tommyinnit, or at least most parts of his body. However he had clearly underestimated Tommy's strength, as when he entered what was left of Logstedshire he found nothing but a clumsily built tower and a little trail of blood.

Dream, having known Tommy's mental state when he'd left him, knew that suicide could have been an option that he might have come to, but after looking around the bottom of the tower he decided that it just wasn’t a possible explanation, finding no evidence that a body was ever left here.

Therefore the little shit had run off again, and Dream needed to find him and finish him for good.

~

Tubbo had been anxious to visit Tommy since he had ran into Philza the day before. Seeing as his adoptive father obviously knew that something was wrong with Tommy, Tubbo was starting to feel like his decision to exile his best friend wasn't so good after all.

When Tubbo's busy schedule had finally cleared up after a long day, he decided to head straight over to Tommy’s island only to step through the Logstedshire nether portal and find it deserted. Tommy’s tent was gone, seemingly blown up. His Christmas tree was nowhere to be seen. Logstedshire was completely gone, and all that was left was a large crater. Confused, Tubbo looked around more to try and get a sense of what on earth was going on, and then he saw it…

A hastily constructed tower loomed over the remains of Logstedshire. It looked awfully like…

“No, surely not.” Tubbo muttered to himself, unable to believe that his best friend was dead, that he had killed himself, and it was all his fault.

He had pushed Tommy to do this. Tears started to roll down his cheeks as Tubbo fell to the ground. Maybe if he hadn’t exiled Tommy and had actually stuck to their plan, none of this would have happened. If he hadn't been so persistent on putting logic before emotions, Tommy might have survived.

Logic before emotions. That was how it had to be as a president. He had to put his nation before friendship. It's what was best for L'Manburg, right? As Tubbo brought his knees up to his chin he started to doubt that even more.

Tommy had always been there for Tubbo, and yet when Tommy needed him most, he wasn’t there for him. Some friend he was.

His arms and legs felt heavy as lead as Tubbo dragged himself to his feet and jumped down into the largest crater. He crashed to his knees and started to cry. Night fell and he was still curled in a ball in the middle of Logstedshire, sobbing his eyes out. He'd failed his best friend. He'd failed everyone.

~

Dream knew that Tommy was fast but he had also been incredibly weak, so the chances of him getting far from Logstedshire were slim. But as the break of dawn had shown, Tommy was good at proving him wrong. Dream needed backup if he wanted to find this kid soon, and what better help than his closest friends: Georgenotfound, Sapnap and Badboyhalo.

Assembling the three hunters on the beach, Dream gave each a direction to cover. Bad would head south, George would go east, Sapnap north, and Dream would continue searching to the west of Logstedshire.

They split off, each supplied with enough food and materials to last about a week, and each instructed to alert the others and bring Tommy back to the beach if they managed to find him.

Once his friends had ventured off in their given directions, Dream hung back; there was something he had to do before beginning his search. Fishing around in his pocket, he pulled out a flint and steel, shining as though it had only just been made. He turned to the remains of Logstedshire. The former campsite looked pathetic with only a few logs remaining. But they were still standing, that was the problem, and Dream needed to eliminate all problems.

Clicking his flint and steel he set the wood alight with ease. Fire spread along the edges of the camp, slowly erasing Logstedshire completely. Dream watched it all, a small smile on his face, not moving until every last bit of it was engulfed in flames. As soon as his sudden spout of rage had been settled, he turned to the setting sun and walked into the woods to find Tommy.

It wasn’t long before he found the right trail.

~

After ensuring that he had tucked the photographs safely away in his ender chest, Tommy attempted to make conversation with Technoblade.

"So, Techno…" he started awkwardly, leaning against the cold stone wall of his older brother's storage room, "What's the worst word you know?"

"Tommy, as much as I'd love to talk to you, I can't do this right now. My mind is firing at twelve times the rate it should normally do. They just won't… stop… calling to me…" Techno groaned and slumped onto the floor, his hands over his face muffling his voice.

"Who won't stop calling to you? I can't hear anything," Tommy asked, confused.

Techno looked up at his brother, his face dark.

"The voices, Tommy. They demand blood," he tilted his head up so it rested against the wall. Closing his eyes, he continued, "I can't sleep most nights because they're always there. Sometimes it's just a whisper but most of the time it's thousands of screaming people, shouting words at me that sometimes I can't even understand."

He opened his eyes and rested his arms on his knees, folding them and letting his head fall onto where they crossed.

"Sometimes I hear them too," a voice piped up from the doorway.

Technoblade looked up and saw the ghostly form of Wilbur Soot floating outside the storage room. He looked at his brother quizzically, almost as if he were trying to guess if he was telling the truth or not.

Ghostbur floated over to where Tommy was standing and perched on the edge of a furnace, "But it's really only good things they say to me. When I'm feeling a bit down and I've ran out of blue, I hear a little person in my head telling me that I will be ok. Sometimes they sound like a random person I don't recognise, but there's the odd occasion when it sounds like someone I know is trying to tell me something- it's almost like telepathy, but the message always gets jumbled somehow and I can't make out what they're saying…"

He stopped when he saw Techno urgently stand up and go to open the ender chest on the other side of the room. He took out a small red notebook with a worn spine and dog-eared pages and flicked to one of the pages towards the end of the book.

Tommy and Ghostbur shared a confused glance as Techno took out a stub of pencil from his pocket and hastily scribbled down a sentence, before shutting the book and storing it back in his ender chest with an exasperated look on his face.

"Tommy, you have to hide. They're saying he's near, grab an invisibility potion and… I don't know, find a box or something to hide in?" Techno said quickly, tripping over his words slightly as he frantically started looking through chests.

"Wait, what? Who's coming?" Tommy asked, alarmed by the sudden change in atmosphere.

"Ghostbur, can you turn invisible at will? You're a ghost I think you can manage, if not then pull out 'The Secret Garden' from my bookshelf in the basement and find a hiding place from there. We need to hurry…" The eldest sent Wilbur downstairs with a backup invisibility potion, just in case.

"TECHNOBLADE! WHO'S COMING?" Tommy shouted, immediately regretting his choice and shrinking back into the wall as he realised that he'd raised his voice.

Techno sighed. "I can't tell you but please just know that this is an emergency," Tommy started to protest but he was cut off by Techno shushing him.

"Here, drink this and find a good hiding spot. You can't be seen," he said calmly and handed his brother a potion of invisibility, "Now this should last five minutes, but if you see it wear off before then you have to get my attention somehow. Preferably just fake cough then that's easier for me to cover up. If I'm not here, just try and conceal your body."

"And why are we listening to the voices in your head? Don't you hate them?"

"The voices never lie, Tommy. This has happened before. Now please for the love of God go and hide! I need to get Phil, but I'll be back soon, ok? Don't. Leave. Your hiding spot." Techno said tiredly and left Tommy alone in his house, Ghostbur already safely where no one would be able to find him.

Tommy looked around the storage room, invisibility potion in hand as he searched for a spot where he could be safely hidden. The room didn’t have much in it apart from a row of chests, a few old boxes covered in cobwebs and some cracked potion bottles. Quickly searching through the boxes, a plan began to form in Tommy’s head. He stepped into the emptiest box, closed the lid, made a small hole so he could breathe, and drank the potion of invisibility Techno gave him. As soon as his arms faded out of view, he heard a crash coming from a window upstairs, followed by heavy footsteps.

That ruled out the possibility of it being Techno or Phil, as their footsteps would have been light and agile, unless they were hurt, but they would have cried out if they needed help, so it definitely wasn’t them. It couldn’t be Ghostbur either; he was hiding somewhere, and he would float instead of walking. But who else could it be, no one else knew where Techno’s base was apart from them, right?

Minutes passed, and all Tommy could do was sit in his box quietly, waiting for the person to leave. However, knowing his luck, that wasn’t going to happen. Before he knew it the footsteps were getting closer, and his invisibility only had a minute left. With no weapon or capability to defend himself, Tommy weighed his chances of being found.

The odds weren't looking good for him.

The footsteps grew louder, and the door creaked open slowly, as if whoever was behind it knew that he was there and wanted to make Tommy as uncomfortable and frightened as possible. The trespasser was in the storage room with him now, just out of sight of Tommy’s box. One more step closer to him and… Tommy recognised those shoes, they were Dream's. Out of instinct he immediately tried to make himself as small as he could, but his shuffling made noise and caused Dream to curiously step over to the box.

“Hello Tommy,” Dream almost laughed in the boy's face, opening the box to find a now-visible Tommyinnit, “I was wondering when I was gonna run into you.”

“D...Dream?” Tommy stammered, flinching as he looked up into the expressionless eyes of the mask concealing Dream's face.

“So you decided you'd seek refuge with… Technoblade? Didn't you say you despise that man?” Dream snapped, making the boy in the box start shaking nervously. Tommy didn’t want to answer Dream's questions, and to be honest he was so scared at seeing the masked man again, that he wasn't sure he would be able to even if he wanted.

“Come on now Tommy, that’s not very polite is it? Don’t make me force you to answer.” He snarled, reaching for his axe that had been slung around his shoulder. At this, Tommy flinched again; he didn’t need to make Dream angrier with him than he already was.

“S...Sorry Dream, it won’t happen again, I shouldn’t have ran away. I was being stupid, I’m sorry.” Tommy muttered quickly, trying to make his punishment as bearable as possible by apologising. Why did he think he could just escape like that? What had he been thinking?

Just as Dream's hand closed around his axe and he started to pull it over his shoulder, the sound of a door unlocking upstairs caused both Tommy and Dream to look up at the staircase leading to the rest of the house.

"Tommy?" Techno called from the floor above, followed by a muttered, "Why is this window… oh fuck."

Dream looked back at Tommy momentarily, before quickly opening one of Techno's chests and stealing an invisibility potion. Tommy watched helplessly from his box as the masked man who haunted his nightmares disappeared from sight in a cloud of silver particles.

"Tommy?" Techno repeated and came into Tommy's view, followed by an exasperated looking Philza. Both their faces had worried expressions written over them, before Phil caught sight of his son cowering in his box.

"Oh, thank God. Techno, he's in here," Phil said and lifted the lid off of the box to reveal a shaking Tommy, whose face was sheet-white and sweaty.

Techno crossed the room to Phil, "Ok Phil, you look after Tommy while I get Ghostbur. I have a feeling Dream's been here already so tread carefully; he might still be around."

Phil looked back at his youngest son as Techno left his storage room, "Hey buddy, you ok?" he asked, concerned.

Tommy stayed silent, quietly staring over Phil's shoulder at the spot where Dream had vanished. His father turned to face where Tommy was looking, but turned back confused, "There's nothing there, Tommy. Please talk to me, what's wrong bud?"

"I don't… I…" Tommy stuttered, eyes still fixed behind Phil. He took a deep breath and looked up at his dad, "He found me."

Phil sighed; he knew that Dream was searching for Tommy but didn't realise how good his tracking skills were. He reached over to his son, who flinched away from the gesture but relaxed as Phil set his hand on Tommy's shoulder.

"It's ok son, I promise that me, Will and Techno are going to protect you from that man, alright? When I find him, he's going to pay for what he did to you."

Under the guise of the invisibility potion, Dream smiled beneath his mask. Did Philza Minecraft really think that he could take him on?

Realising that Tommy had resumed staring at the ground across the room from his box, Dream stood where he knew the boy could see him and equipped his netherite boots. The terrified look on Tommy's face grew as his wide eyes followed Dream's boots up the stairs and out of the storage room.

Dream chuckled quietly to himself as he left Technoblade's house and started walking through the snow. The soft crunch beneath his feet accompanied his thoughts as he walked up to Techno's reignited Nether portal.

A plan had already formed in his head.

He had some discs to steal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tysm for reading chapter 5, the next chapter will be uploaded soon if I remember lol
> 
> Chapters 1 to halfway-through 7 have already been written, so we'll be uploading a new chapter every day or so until we have new writing to post. We've planned a bunch of the plot in advance and are just working out the details before writing it up properly.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and any feedback is very much appreciated, so pls feel free to leave a comment :)
> 
> \- wheel


	6. Deals and Discs ~ 6 ~ 4th Jan 2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey sorry it took a while, but enjoy :)
> 
> Also pls don’t repost as you own lol

_⚠️ CW: Mention of suicide, manipulation ⚠️_

After he arrived on the other side of the Nether portal, Tubbo walked miserably past several buildings on his way to L’Manburg. As he finally arrived home, he trudged up the stairs and fell onto his bed with a soft thud.

“He can’t be gone,” Tubbo lifted his head to see a framed picture on his bedside table. It was from that day on the beach with Tommy. His eyes lingered on his best friend’s confused face, “Not yet.”

Tubbo put the photograph back on the table and sighed. Surely Tommy can’t have jumped; he would have remembered Ghostbur and Phil, and how he still has a home in L’Manburg, no matter how far he might have been from it. But Tubbo had found no trail away from the tower, no sign that Tommy had survived.

Maybe he should have just followed the plan. Sure, there might have been a war but it would have prevented Tommy from going over the edge. Maybe Dream would never have had to take Tommy far away to the edge of the world… He sat up, struck by thought. Dream was the only one that visited Tommy regularly, Tubbo knew that from Dream’s reports. If he had always been there with Tommy, why did he just stand there and let it happen? Dream has access to anything in the entire world; surely he would have… Tubbo’s thought trailed off as another came to the front of his mind.

That crater in Logstedshire didn’t come from nowhere. Dream has access to unlimited amounts of TNT…

He stood up quickly. Time was of the essence, and Tubbo had someone to see.

~

Tommy had calmed down considerably after he knew for sure that Dream had left, and he and Phil went upstairs to find Techno and Ghostbur.

They found the twins in the library, quietly sitting on one of Techno's sofas reading a book together. Phil caught sight of them from the doorway and stepped back quickly, trying not to make a sound. Tommy shot him a confused glance.

"What the f-"

"Look at them Tommy, they're so peaceful!" Phil whispered, "I haven't seen them this close in years…" he looked back at his sons, who hadn't noticed Phil and Tommy yet.

"They're just reading, Phil. I really don't see why this is so life-changing for you," Tommy said flatly, peering over his father's shoulder.

"Tommy?" Techno frowned and looked up from the book to see his brother and father awkwardly standing in the doorway, "Oh, hi guys. We were just waiting for you to get back." He stood up and walked over to the bookshelf to put the book away, as Ghostbur floated towards Phil and Tommy.

“So,” Techno cleared his throat, “What took you guys so long?” At the question Tommy began to pale again, as he leaned into Phil's shoulder. Noticing Tommy's visible uncomfort, Techno decided to change the subject.

“Tommy, do you feel any better?” He asked, hastily trying to slip any bit of compassion into his words but failing miserably.

“Like shit.” Tommy muttered, his face buried in the soft fabric of Phil’s cloak. It was true, Tommy had been feeling terrible all day, but had tried his best to put on an act so his dad wouldn’t worry. Although he told himself that the act was for Phil and Phil alone, a part of him knew that it was also for Techno, that he didn’t want his older brother worrying either. But that couldn’t be right; he had to ignore their childhood, after all Techno did destroy L’manburg and kill Tubbo… That made him a bad guy, right?

Techno knew this wasn’t normal behavior for Tommy- normally he would be loud and energetic, annoying everyone as much as he possibly could. Instead he was clingy and frightened, trying to put on an act of being fine (which Techno could easily see through). Sure, it was to be expected that he wouldn’t be his usual self having been unconscious for the best part of three days, but this wasn’t at all like Tommy.

Even when he was close to losing his first life in the L'Manburg independance war, he was still loud and obnoxious, running around without a care in the world. Dream had done something to his little brother, and he was going to pay for it.

“Tommy, maybe you should go to bed, you look tired. Ghostbur, can you take Tommy up to his room?” Phil suggested, looking at Techno with a worried expression. Techno muttered words of agreement and after a few minutes of coaxing they finally got Tommy upstairs and settled into bed.

Once they knew he would be asleep they began to whisper to each other. 

“Phil, what happened?”

“He was here. Dream found Tommy.”

Techno sighed, “I knew this would happen.” They both stared blankly at the wall opposite them, silently communicating their worries. Techno took a deep breath before continuing, “I just didn’t think it would be this soon, and while we were both out, of all times.”

“Dream knows a lot of things, Techno. For all we know he could have been hiding out in the trees, keeping an eye on the house and waiting for us both to leave Tommy unguarded. You can never be too cautious with that man.”

They sat together for a while, simply enjoying each other's company. Only when Phil checked the time and suggested that they head to bed did they eventually go upstairs.

On the way to his bedroom, Techno decided to stop outside Tommy's room and check on him and Ghostbur. He stopped outside in the hallway, listening to the muffled whispers inside.

"Do you really think so?" He heard Tommy say quietly. His voice sounded pained, "Do you really think he still cares?"

"Of course he does! Here, have some more blue. I'm sure he's thinking about you right now. In fact… I think he's trying to tell me something…"

There was a slight pause as Tommy waited in anticipation for Ghostbur to say something.

"Oh, it's all muddled. I'm sorry, Tommy."

"It's ok Wilbur, I believe you. I'm going to try and get some sleep now. Do you want to stay here for a bit?" Tommy asked with a yawn.

"I can stay if you want. I don't sleep, you see. Would you like me to play you a song to help you sleep?"

Techno heard a rustle of bedsheets which he could assume was Tommy nodding. He rested against the wall and closed his eyes as he listened to Ghostbur play a few chords on his guitar.

He stayed there for a while, smiling as he remembered how Wilbur had tried to teach him how to play guitar when they were kids.

He heard a small laugh from Tommy, who'd found one of the lines in Wilbur's song funny. Soon, soft snores came from Tommy's room and Wilbur ended his song with an A chord.

Techno sighed and walked across the hallway to his own bedroom. He was disappointed that he and Wilbur rarely had time to talk like that any more, but was glad that Tommy at least had the opportunity.

"Goodnight Tommy, I hope you sleep well!" Ghostbur said and put his guitar down against Tommy's bed and floated downstairs to Techno's library.

By morning he had finished no less than twenty four books.

~

"Hello Dream," Tubbo said calmly as he walked up to the chess arena the next morning. Dream and Fundy were in the middle of a game and they both looked to be deep in thought.

"Hi Tubbo, what brings you here?" Dream asked as he moved one of his pawns to take Fundy's knight.

"I need to talk to you," the president said, his voice unusually serious.

Shit he knows, Dream thought, play dumb, "What do you need? We could pause this game if it's anything serious," a fake look of concern crossed Dream's face. He'd always thought himself a good actor.

"Oh this is very serious," Tubbo said. His face was expressionless but Dream could tell that Tubbo was angry, "Fundy, could you excuse us for a second please," Fundy nodded and watched as Tubbo led Dream away to L'Manburg.

"What's wrong, Tubbo? Have I done anything wrong?" Dream asked as they stopped outside Phil's house. His mask made this considerably easier to pull off, as it covered most of his face.

"Oh you have most certainly done something wrong, Dream. I'd like you to tell me where you've been recently; you haven't been around here much."

"I've been visiting Tommy in Logstedshire, you know that," the masked man replied, his voice taking an accusing tone.

"Oh really? You wouldn't happen to have seen a rather large crater that has taken the place of Logstedshire as of late? If I recall correctly, no one else would have been there except you and Tommy, and I can't seem to find him anywhere," Tubbo narrowed his eyes, glaring at Dream.

His expression looked almost comical.

"Oh, that. Listen tubbo, Tommy's a… how do I say this, he's quite impulsive. And he-"

"I know that wasn't Tommy's doing," Tubbo cut him off, "He isn't the one with an unlimited supply of tnt at hand. Tell the truth, dream."

Dream laughed pitifully, his voice twisted to be darker and more sinister as he suddenly dropped the whole innocent act, "Ok fine, you got me, I blew it up. But I only did it because he was breaking my trust. He's been hiding things from me, that isn't very nice, is it tubbo? It isn't nice to hide things from your friends,"

Tubbo looked up at Dream's expressionless face as the taller man slowly reached into his pocket and took out a music disc with purple and white stripes in the middle.

"Mellohi…" Tubbo whispered, eyes widening as he recognised the disc in the man's hand. Dream held Mellohi above Tubbo's head as he tried to reach for it, smirking beneath his mask as the president glared at him.

"Where did you get that?" he asked angrily.

"Oh I have my ways. I thought you said you'd given this back to Skeppy? I don't like liars, Tubbo." Dream examined the disc. He carried great power with this in his possession; after he got Cat from Skeppy, Tommy wouldn't be able to help but do everything Dream would want him to. All it would take would be the simple threat of burning his discs and he could do basically anything.

"Give that back, Tommy trusted me with it." Tubbo said, bringing Dream back from his thoughts.

"Oh but Tommy isn't here is he? He's gone far away…"

"You didn't kill him… did you?" Tubbo asked worriedly. There was a brief pause as Dream contemplated whether it would be a good idea to tell the truth or not.

"No, unfortunately," Tubbo sighed in relief "But he isn't anywhere that you'd find him easily, either."

"Tell me where he is. Please, Dream. I need to see my friend." Tubbo pleaded desperately.

Dream pitied the president's weakness.

"I'll make you a deal, how about Tommy gets a one day visa to L'Manburg and you can get see him, but you have to let me keep Mellohi, and Punz has to follow Tommy around the whole time to make sure he doesn't do anything wrong."

Tubbo thought for a moment; this deal couldn't be too bad, could it?

"Ok, but the visa is for three days seeing as you get to keep Mellohi," Tubbo negotiated and held his hand out to the masked man in front of him.

Dream frowned momentarily, but it faded quickly. A couple of extra days couldn't be too bad, right?

"It's a deal," he said and shook Tubbo's hand.

"Great. When will the visa start?"

"A day or so, it's really up to you." Dream took a step back, "Can I go back to my chess game now? I was about to beat Fundy,"

"Of course. I'll get Ranboo to give Tommy his visa, if you could tell him where Tommy is that would be good; Ranboo's memory is pretty bad so I'm sure he'll forget after he delivers the visa." Tubbo chuckled quietly.

"Sure. It's been a pleasure, Mr President. I'll see you around."

"Goodbye Dream."

Turning away from Tubbo, Dream started to walk back towards the chess board. Something in his mind was telling him that he'd just made a terrible mistake, but he brushed it off and replaced it with the thought of winning against Fundy, who was arguably the best chess player on the server.

The visa could wait for another day, he had a chess game to win.

~

The next day Ranboo was tasked with the mission of finding Tommyinnit and giving him the visa. After a very awkward and long conversation, Ranboo knew where he had to go… at least he hoped he remembered the correct directions.

An hour of walking and rowing passed and soon he had completely forgotten where he was going and was stuck in the middle of the ocean. Ranboo knew that he was going to find Tommy and he also knew that he was meant to give him a visa for L’manburg, but did Tubbo say he's in a desert biome or a snow biome or somewhere else entirely?

The directions Tubbo had given him had completely left his mind after a whole hour of mindless and repetitive travelling and Ranboo had started to panic. What if he got lost and couldn't find his way back home? What if he never found Tommy and gave him the visa, would Tubbo be mad? 

"Shit," Ranboo cursed under his breath. He really should have written down where he was going. Struck with an idea, he frantically digged around in his pockets for the compass that Eret had lended him for the journey.

After a few moments of shuffling, Ranboo pulled out the small metal compass and tried to remember how it worked, "So the red thing points… north? Oh wait, no it points to spawn! Right so if I turn around then I'm facing spawn…" he turned his boat awkwardly in the middle of the ocean, "Now! Ok, now I just have to make sure I don't die on the way home."

Ranboo set off in his boat, following Eret's compass and humming the tune of a song he'd heard Ghostbur play the other day. A few miles of empty ocean passed as he continued rowing, until he spotted land in the horizon.

"Finally!" the half-enderman exclaimed as he reached the edge of the island. The sun was starting to set so Ranboo was glad that he'd found a place where he could build a shelter.

He set off into a forest and emerged on the other side in a plains biome that stretched for miles. Ranboo could see mobs spawning in the distance, so he decided to cut down some trees for wood to make a shelter for the night.

Heading back into the forest, he noticed a village about fifty blocks away and was surprised that he hadn't found it sooner, but was glad that he'd found somewhere to loot as he had started to run low on food. Ranboo quickly made his way over to the village but to his dismay it had already been looted and the villagers had all disappeared.

"Great," he muttered, "Someone else has already taken all the… wait. Someone else has been here. I'm still really far from spawn so that must mean…" Ranboo ran through the deserted village and out the other side, finding a portal ruin that had been restored, but it wasn't ignited for some reason.

Frowning, he looked around for any other signs that could indicate that someone had been here and quickly found a trail of dirt in a nearby river. Ranboo followed the trail through another river and stumbled upon what seemed to be the ruins of a house, as well as a number of pictures on random walls in the middle of a field. Ranboo laughed quietly at a meme of Tubbo that had been placed on a hastily constructed wooden board.

He looked past the meme board and noticed a fire in the distance. "I knew something was up…" he said quietly as he cautiously approached it.

Climbing over a small hill, Ranboo found a flaming Christmas tree with a small crater next to it. He stepped back in shock as he realised that the crater was exactly where Tommy's tent had been. He was in Logstedshire, or at least what was left of it.

He quickly made his way down a path which he knew would lead him to the main camp, but when he reached the end of the path Ranboo's eyes widened in horror.

Logstedshire had been burnt to the ground, and in its place was a very large crater. Even Ghostbur's tent had been reduced to nothing but a scrap of fabric on the ground.

However the most disturbing thing in the flaming campsite hadn't been the wreck of Logstedshire. Ranboo stumbled backwards after noticing a scarily tall tower looming over the crater, tripping over his feet and falling to the ground after realising what might have happened.

But Ranboo didn't believe that Tommy had jumped. Despite his absolutely fucked over mental state, the kid still had some sense left in him. Scrambling to his feet, the half-enderman walked over to the base of the tower to investigate.

Half expecting to find the limp body of Tommyinnit, Ranboo braced himself as he passed blazing branches of trees that had been caught in the fire. After a short while, Ranboo reached the base of the looming tower.

He scoured the ground for any trace of blood or body parts, but sighed in relief as he confirmed that Tommy had simply jumped down into a body of water and got to safety from there.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Ranboo walked back around to Logstedshire, making sure to not get too close to the fire. He stepped onto the path and went over to where Tommy's tent once stood.

He hoped to find his mail chest but unfortunately that had been blown up with the tent.

"Right. This is fine," Ranboo assured himself as he took his notebook out of his inventory, "Tommy is safe, he is away from here and he is fine. He probably doesn't have any items or tools or anything but he is alive." He stopped rambling as he registered a thought that had struck him suddenly.

Tubbo thinks that Tommy's dead.

Tubbo thinks that Tommy jumped off of that tower and killed himself. He didn't see the water, and he didn't see that there wasn't a body. He must have not wanted to look any further. Ranboo couldn't blame him.

"I need to tell Tubbo. I need to tell him that Tommy's alive," Ranboo muttered and quickly walked over to the broken Nether portal. He repaired it with some obsidian in his inventory but hesitated as he held his flint and steel in front of him.

"He isn't going to believe you. He's going to call you a liar because he saw the tower. He saw the crater in Logstedshire. Why does this have to be so difficult?"

He punched the obsidian portal frame, forgetting that he still had his flint and steel in his hand. The portal quickly ignited and Ranboo shouted in surprise as he fell through the purple swirlinees. He'd quite literally fallen into hell.

~

"So what are you willing to give for this?"

Skeppy and Dream stood behind Skeppy's mansion, hardly able to see the other in the darkness of the night. The moon reflected in Dream's mask, making its expressionless features more prominent in the moonlight.

"Are you kidding? I gave you this disc so that you could keep it safe for me, not for you to have for yourself,"

"Correct, but I'm not just gonna give it back to you for free. I kept this safe for you, I had to almost fight Tubbo over it. You can't just expect me to give it back to you without some sort of payment, Dream."

Skeppy hid his quickly growing fear of Dream and masked it with confidence. It was true, he did almost fight Tubbo, and Dream couldn't just ask for Tommy's disc back.

Dream was getting impatient.

"Listen, you know how much these discs mean to Tommy. I think you also know what my plan is regarding them. I could kill you very easily, Skeppy. You don't want to make this hard for yourself,"

"Ok then, we'll settle on a deal. I give you this disc back if you tell me what Sam's building. I know he's doing something for you, and I just want to know what you're going to do with it."

Dream laughed bitterly. Was Skeppy being serious? Of course he wasn't going to do that.

"Absolutely not. That is strictly between me and him for the time being and I suggest you don't go looking any further. I'll give you… half a stack of diamonds for the disc and then this is finished."

Skeppy contemplated the offer.

"Ok, deal. Do you have an ender chest on you?"

The exchange was made, and the two men parted ways. Dream made his way to the prime path, and disappeared off the horizon.

Skeppy held the diamonds in his inventory, a slight feeling that he'd just been used entering his mind. Brushing it off, he deposited his new riches into his ender chest and moved on with his day.

Dream now had both legitimate discs, and boy was he going to use them to manipulate a child.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading chapter 6, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next chapter should be up soon, if we remember lol
> 
> Chapters 1 to halfway-through 8 have already been written, so we'll be uploading a new chapter every couple days or so until we have new writing to post. We've planned a bunch of the plot in advance and are just working out the details before writing it up properly.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and any feedback is very much appreciated, so pls feel free to leave a comment :)
> 
> Also that stream am I right, like holy shit that was good, but no spoilers since some people may not have been able to watch :)
> 
> -Wheel


	7. Back home ~ 7 ~ 6th Jan 2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it took a while oop
> 
> pls don't repost as your own lol

_⚠️ CW: effects of abuse, threatening language ⚠️_

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THIS WAS WRITTEN EVEN BEFORE L’MANBURG WAS BLOWN UP- WE WERE COMPLETELY OBLIVIOUS ABOUT ANY EVENTS THAT HAVE HAPPENED IN 2021 SO FAR AND ALSO WE WON’T INCLUDE MOST OF THE ARCS AND PLOT THAT WAS MADE IN 2021 SEEING AS WE’VE PLANNED VERY FAR AHEAD INTO THIS BOOK AND IT’S KINDA TOO LATE TO CHANGE ANYTHING, THANK YOU AND HAVE A GREAT DAY GAMERS

It was early morning when Tommy awoke. He hadn’t been having the greatest sleep, when he jolted awake at the unmistakable crunching of snow and muttered curses coming from outside his window. He didn’t want to look; it was probably Dream coming to punish him for yesterday. But to his surprise, when he finally brought himself to look out of his window he saw the shivering but smiling Jack Manifold.

“Jack?” Tommy asked, surprised, as he opened the window and stuck his head out.

“Hey Tommy, you look like shit.” Jack replied casually, staring at Tommy's bruised and bandaged face. Although Tommy knew he probably wasn’t wrong (he hadn’t looked at a mirror in days, and Phil was way too nice to say anything) he still frowned, offended.

“Thanks a lot dickhead, I hadn’t noticed. What do you want?” 

“Well someone’s in a bad mood.” Jack mocked with a small laugh, although Tommy realised that he wasn’t being made fun of. Jack was joking with him? But everyone hates Tommyinnit, that's what Dream said. No one wants to be his friend but… Jack's being nice to him?

"Here, Tubbo told me to give this to you. Uhh, have a good day!” He blurted after a short but incredibly awkward pause, chucking an envelope at Tommy's window with surprisingly good aim before turning and running away. 

Tommy contemplated whether or not to go after him, but decided against it after realising that climbing out of the second story window would definitely result in at least one broken bone. He sat down on his bed after a moment, curiosity getting the better of him, before taking a proper look at the envelope. His hands trembled slightly as he opened it, but he managed to take out a small piece of paper, leaving another smaller piece of paper in the envelope for a bit later.

He turned the letter over to the side with writing on it and immediately recognised the handwriting. It was Dream's. His mind blanked for a few moments and he let the paper fall to the floor. Why did Tubbo want to give Tommy a letter from Dream? Is Tubbo friends with Dream now? What if Tubbo's already forgotten about him because he's got Dream as his best friend now?

He hadn’t realized that he was crying until he felt the tears fall onto his lap. Quickly wiping his eyes, Tommy tried to reel himself back in. He didn’t know what to think anymore, it was all too confusing. Dream said one thing, everyone else said another. He didn’t know who to believe.

The thoughts only got louder.

_The letter says you're never allowed back again, doesn't it? He knows what you did, he knows what you tried to do. He knows and he hates you for it. Dream's back in L'manburg now, he can tell Tubbo whatever he wants him to believe. He's going to think you're insane. He thinks you're mad Tommy, he hates you. He hates you he hates you he hatesyou he hates youhehates youhe hatesyouhehatesyou hehatesyouhehatesyouhrgstedyiukwgatds_

Everything was getting blurry. He couldn't see. He couldn't even think properly.

Subconsciously, Tommy had rolled himself into a ball, hands wrapped around his knees, his head resting on his chest, letting out pained sobs. It was only when he heard a knock on the door that he noticed how loud he was.

“Tommy?” It was Phil, the man's voice was soft and worried, “Tommy, I’m coming in, okay?" He said before slowly opening the door and seeing his youngest son curled up on his bed.

“Aw, hey buddy," Phil muttered gently, as he walked over and slowly wrapped his son in a hug. Tommy instantly relaxed into his embrace, resting his head on Phil’s chest. It stayed like that for a while, until he had calmed down enough to tell Phil what happened.

"Is this what Techno hears? Voices in his head telling him horrible things, that's what he described it as. Am I going crazy, Phil? What if they're right, what if-"

"Tommy, calm down," Phil interrupted and put his hands on his son's shoulders, "I'll ask Techno about it later and see if he can help you."

Tommy nodded, his expression unreadable.

"You said something about a letter from Dream, could I see it please?"

His breath shaky, Tommy reached down and picked up the envelope from the floor beneath him. He handed it to Phil.

"Do you want me to read it out? I don't have to if you don't want me to," Phil said, reading the first few sentences of the letter.

"It's fine… I think I'll be fine," Tommy assured him and took a deep breath, "I'm fine."

"Ok, if you're sure," Phil said and looked back to the letter in his hand.

 _"Dear Tommyinnit,"_ he read, _"You have been granted a temporary three-day visa to L'Manburg by request of President Tubbo Underscore,"_ Tommy's face lit up and he looked at Phil with a newfound excitement, _"You will be escorted to L'Manburg by Punz on the seventh of January, and he will monitor your every movement within the country throughout your stay. Although I am not the happiest that you will be visiting, I do now have…"_

Phil paused and frowned at the words on the paper momentarily before continuing, slightly more hesitant, _"I do now have both your discs in my possession and that is enough to satisfy me for the time being."_

Tommy's face instantly fell. He has both discs? But how? Tubbo had Mellohi and he'd never betray him, right? Then again Tubbo did exile him…

Phil took notice of Tommy's discomfort and quickly stopped reading, "I can stop here if you'd like, you don't look too good with-"

"No, no I'm fine. I need to know when this is happening, I can't miss this chance," Tommy replied quickly and stared blankly at the discarded envelope on the bed.

Phil sighed and returned to the letter, _"As fun as it will be to watch you give up everything for these pieces of plastic again, I'd like you to know that if…_ Tommy are you sure you want me to continue?"

His son nodded confidently, so Phil went against his doubts and continued reading.

_"I'd like you to know that if you so much as step in the wrong direction while this visa is activated, it will be instantly revoked and you will never be allowed in L'manburg ever again. That won't be all that will happen of course- simply kicking you out again won't do much damage at all. However I won't tell you what those consequences will be, and you can hope that you will never have to know what they are."_

"Phil what is he talking about? What consequences?" Tommy asked, his voice strained and unusually quiet.

"I don't know, son. But it will definitely be something very very bad, knowing Dream," Phil frowned, and his voice took a dark tone, "If he hurts you I will kill him. No one gets away with that while I'm here, not even a man who is technically invincible," he turned to look Tommy in the eyes, "Please, promise me that if he ever hurts you again then you will tell me. I can't have you leaving me as well. I've already lost Wi-"

"Are you guys ok?"

Phil and Tommy quickly turned to the door, where they saw Ghostbur and Techno standing awkwardly in the hallway outside Tommy's room.

"We're all good, Will. Just reading a letter from Ranboo, nothing bad," Tommy replied smoothly, lying about the letter so that Techno wouldn't get worried, "In fact, we were just about to come down and make some breakfast!"

He took the letter from Phil and quickly read the rest as Phil stalled for him. As scared yet excited as he was, Tommy pushed himself to hide his emotions as he skim-read the last paragraph.

Dream had written down the coordinates of where to meet Punz at 11am the next day. Perfect, Tommy thought. He read the final sentence and the hairs on his arms started to stand up. He didn't know if he'd be able to do this, but he had to try.

For Tubbo.

He joined the others' conversation as they agreed on making pancakes for breakfast. Phil shot him a questioning look and Tommy replied with one that meant 'I'll tell you later'. Phil nodded and Tommy zoned out, returning to his thoughts.

11am tomorrow. It'll be fine. But what if it's a trap? It won't be a trap, Dream isn't like that. But he is like that, that's the exact type of thing he'd do. No, I can trust Dream. I can't, I can't trust him. But I have to try this time. I'll finally see Tubbo again. But he'll hate me. He'll see me and wish he'd never asked for me to be back. No. It'll be fine. Everything will be fine.

Bringing himself back to reality, Tommy left the room, following Phil and the others to the kitchen. The letter had been left on his bed, but the final words still rung in his mind as if he was reading them straight from the paper.

_'You may be back in L'Manburg for a few days, but this changes nothing. I'm never letting you get away. :)'_

~

Jack was relieved to say the least; everything had gone according to Dream's plan. He went to Techno's house, did as little amount of talking as he possibly could, gave Tommy the letter and got out of there as fast as humanly possible. Tommy didn't even ask any questions!

Everything went smoothly and Manifold Land wouldn't suffer the wrath of the undisclosed amount of TNT in Dream's possession. Everything was fine. 

Until he got back.

His arrival was normal, just like any other day of travelling. It was only when the president joined him in his walk to his house when he had a sinking feeling his day was about to get a lot worse.

“Jack! You’re back!” Tubbo said nervously. What was he hiding?

“Yeah I am, hey Tubbo," Jack responded, trying to keep himself calm before he inevitably fucked up Dreams orders.

“So… how’d it go?” the president looked at him expectantly.

“It went well, I guess,” Jack said hurriedly hoping that his answer was enough to stop further questioning. 

It was not.

"Is Tommy okay? Is he alive? Where is he? Is he hurt?” And so began the stream of questions.

“Sorry Tubbo, I can’t talk right now. Um, Dream said he'd be expecting me to meet him when I get back.” That was utter bullshit, Jack knew it and he was pretty sure that Tubbo knew too, but it did its job.

“Oh, I’ll leave you be then. Just... tell me more when you're available, ok?” Jack could hear the hurt and disappointment in Tubbo's words but as hard as it was, he had to ignore it. He couldn’t let himself slip up so late in the plan just because he felt bad for Tubbo. Not when his life and nation was at risk.

~

It was the next day, and Tommy’s breathing was heavy as he stood at the front door of Techno's house. Not only would he be out of exile for a bit but he would be able to see Tubbo, and that would have been exciting if he wasn't convinced the boy hated him. Despite Tubbo being the one to request the visa rather than Dream, Tommy was still sure that Tubbo wouldn't be happy to see him.

“Don’t worry Tommy, it’s going to be okay.” He heard a voice from behind him say. It was Phil. Of course it was Phil, he's the only one to bother comforting him at this point, apart from Ghostbur of course but he’s a ghost.

“Yeah okay, thank you Phil.” After a moment of silence, Tommy walked over to the door and called up to Techno and Ghostbur (who were playing chess in Techno's room), “I’m going out guys! I’ll be back in three days,” he turned to Phil for the last time that day, "Take care of Wilbur for me. I'll see you soon."

With a deep breath, Tommy turned the key in the door and walked out into the snow.

No turning back now.

He was excited. Nervous, but excited. His meeting place with Punz wasn’t too long of a walk but Tommy was still freezing by the time he got there; he'd never been good with the cold. It had been a minute since he arrived but Punz was nowhere to be seen.

_It's a trap. Tubbo never wanted to see him. Dream had set this up. It was all a trap._

No, he couldn’t afford to think like that; that was the kind of attitude that wouldn't do anything good for him. He simply had to wait for Punz to arrive. He's just late, surely. It's quite far from the SMP.

It's so far from the SMP.

Punz sat in a nearby tree, hidden from view. He'd been there for about ten minutes, waiting for Tommy to arrive.

He dropped down silently from the tree, landing a few meters behind Tommy and promptly scaring the shit out of him. He cleared his throat before beginning,

“Hello Tommy. Jeez, you look rough. Follow me, I've been told to take you to L'Manburg.”

Tommy jumped a little at Punz's voice, after all he had just appeared out of nowhere, and was standing right in front of him. He gave a small nod before following Punz to the edge of the woods and getting into his boat that was waiting on the water.

The trip was quiet and unbearably awkward, with only the occasional word now and again; Punz telling Tommy to grab something or simply to move out of his way. Tommy did what he was told without hesitation, not wanting to find out what those consequences that Dream mentioned were. His breath stopped for a moment when he saw what awaited them on the horizon.

The docks were a beautiful sight, with Tubbo's only house on the SMP towering over them. The sun was high in the sky despite being the middle of winter, and caused the water around the boat to shimmer slightly.

But the docks weren't why Tommy was shocked, not at all. It was the people on the docks that were the reason. The people he'd hated but longed to see for so long.

Tubbo and Dream.

The sight of the tall, masked man alone was enough to make Tommy want to turn the boat around and row back to Techno's place, but he couldn’t. He couldn't move at all.

Tommy could assume that the look on his own face mirrored the one on Tubbo's, as he stared open-mouthed at his best friend on the dock. Punz moored his boat and helped him up onto the wooden bridge.

They stood on opposite sides of the platform, barely believing that what they saw was real. It had been so, so long.

Dream walked over to Tommy and Punz, pulling Tubbo along with him. Tommy stepped back a little but realised that if he went back any further he'd fall into the water, so he only shuffled back a tiny bit to get away from Dream.

"So. We meet again," the masked man finally said, breaking the deafening silence.

Tommy was, admittedly, incredibly scared of the man in front of him but he knew that it would just be weak to back down now.

"We do indeed," he didn't take his eyes off Tubbo, pinching his fingers together to see if he was dreaming. He wasn't.

An uncomfortable amount of time passed, but was broken when Dream finally spoke up.

"This is just a temporary thing, don't get your hopes up. When you leave this land, that's it. Understand?"

Tommy nodded slightly, eyes still fixed on Tubbo.

"Look at me. Do you understand?" Dream repeated, feigning anger at Tommy's distraction.

The kid's head immediately turned to look at Dream; he did not want to get kicked out before he'd even got to L'Manburg.

"Yes, I understand," he replied, his voice unusually small. Tubbo noticed his change in tone, and frowned. Why is he scared?

"Good. Punz, I'll leave you on babysitting duty," Dream said with a smirk, looking at Tommy through his mask to see if his little remark had got a reaction. It had.

 _"Babysitting?_ I'm not a-"

"Did I ask you to talk?" Dream said quietly, his voice bitter. He'd always been a good actor. This was all too easy.

The effect was instant, and Tommy quickly shut up. He hated how Dream could get him to do anything with the snap of his fingers. He hated how scared he was of the man.

"As I was saying, Punz, don't let this kid out of your sight. Alert me if anything happens; if I'm not available, you know what we discussed."

Punz nodded curtly, a small smile playing on his lips. Tommy had no idea what would happen if he stepped out of line, and it was quite fun for Dream to watch the child grow confused and frightened with the uncertainty.

"I have to go for now, Tubbo you can… talk to your friend I guess. Is he even your friend still? Anyways, have fun Tommy!" he said, a patronising tone in his voice as he spoke to Tommy. The kid scowled at him and he laughed harshly, turning away and throwing an ender pearl in the direction of Eret's tower.

He said goodbye to Punz and disappeared as the ender pearl landed far away.

Tommy glared at the spot Dream had just left; _stupid bastard green man with his dramatic exits._

He looked back up, catching Tubbo staring at him blankly.

"You're… You're here? You're really here?" Tubbo asked quietly; Tommy could barely hear him over the waves crashing into the docks. He looked at the boy in front of him who now wore a suit that was a bit too big for him and a tie that had obviously been tied in a hurry. He was so unbelievably Tubbo-like, yet Tommy refused to believe that this was the same person he'd grew up with.

The Tubbo he knew wouldn't exile his best friend.

"Well yeah, you did ask for me to be here. I can't exactly say no to the president," Tommy replied, his face scrunching slightly as he said the last word. He may have been the one to hand over the presidency, but Tubbo was the one who'd let the power get to his head.

They stood in silence for a moment, before Tommy decided to speak up again, "You exiled me," he said quietly, taking a small step towards Tubbo, "You exiled me and left me on an island in the middle of nowhere. You didn't visit me once!"

His voice started to raise and Tubbo stepped back from Tommy, who'd started walking angrily towards him.

"Tommy," Punz interrupted. Tommy stopped and looked back, annoyance written all over his face.

"Yes?" he asked, irritated.

"Don't forget what Dream said. You have no idea what could happen if you step out of line, and I'm pretty sure murdering the president goes under ‘stepping out of line’."

Tommy immediately stepped back and away from Tubbo, regretting instantly getting angry. He drew his gaze back to Tubbo's scared face and that feeling of regret snowballed. Letting his anger fall away, he threw himself at his best friend, hugging him as if he'd never see him again.

"I missed you so much, Tubbo. You haven't seen what it's like over there. You haven't seen what he's done," Tears began to roll down his face and he pulled away, keeping his hands on Tubbo's shoulders, "I don't want to go back. Please let me stay in L'manburg, I'll behave I promise."

"I've missed you too but I'm sorry Tommy. I'm so sorry, I'm not allowed to make that decision. I'd let you stay if I could, I really would, but it's up to Dream not me," Tubbo said, his eyes starting to glaze with tears before his expression hardened with concern, "Tell me what he did to you. I can help you-"

"I'm sorry but Tommy isn't allowed to tell you that," Punz interrupted, walking up behind them, "Dream said Tommy isn't allowed to tell you about anything that he's been up to."

Tubbo looked from Punz to Tommy, his head dropping.

"I understand," he sighed before looking back to Tommy, "I wasn't thinking right… y'know, in the meeting. I kept putting what I thought was best for L'Manburg in front of what's best for the people, what's best for you."

Tommy averted his eyes from Tubbo's face, unable to look him. He's just saying that, he meant every single word back then.

"Look at me Tommy. No offence, but you look terrible. You've been there for a few weeks but that's enough to make you… to push you…"

He knew what Tubbo was getting at. The tower, the crater in the place of Logstedsh… No, that place is long gone. He left that part of him when he left Logstedshire. He's never going back.

"I get it. Thanks for the concern, but I'm okay now. I've found Te…" he trailed off as he caught Punz's warning glance; he couldn’t even say where he’d been? "I've found shelter and I'm fixing myself back up. I'm getting better. I'm okay."

Tubbo noticed Tommy's change in wording, writing a mental note to ask him about that later. Deciding to change the topic, he suggested giving Tommy a tour of L'Manburg seeing as it had recently been built up again. Tommy agreed, and Punz followed the two to the no-longer-walled up L'Manburg.

The next three days were going to be good. Tommy would breeze through the visa without causing any trouble and Dream would be simply begging for him to stay longer. Nothing was going to go wrong.

But when has anything gone right when Tommy's around?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading chapter 7, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next chapter should be up soon, if we remember lol
> 
> Chapters 1 to most of 9 have already been written, so we'll be uploading a new chapter every week or so.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and any feedback is very much appreciated, so pls feel free to leave a comment :)
> 
> -disco


	8. hey lol (a/n)

sup gamers

there probably won't be a chapter update for the next couple of weeks because we wrote something in chapter 9 that changes quite a bit of the storyline and we need to Figure Shit Out

also we just aren't very good at keeping up with writing anyway but we don't talk about that :)

just a quick note, in the timeline of this fic L'Manburg hasn't been blown up for the third time by Techno and Dream and will probably not be blown up ever since it doesn't really fit in with the ideas we have, but if that changes then oh well I guess

another quick note, the whole Tommy and Tubbo go on an epic adventure and slay the green man won't happen either. all I'm saying about the reason this isn't gonna happen is chapter 9 hehe

feel free to drop any ideas or feedback in the comments, or even just a hello! we always read them and respond :)

have a great rest of your day/night and remember to drink water you are very poggers

\- disco


	9. Things go wrong ~ 8 ~ 7th Jan 2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're back bitches
> 
> my dude wheel has like 200 bookmarks bro wtf
> 
> leave a comment pls i need human connection again

_⚠️ CW: Mention of abuse, fighting, small mention of death ⚠️_

The tour of L’Manburg went pretty smoothly, and soon Tommy, Tubbo and Punz were heading across the prime path to stay at Tommy’s old house for the night. They were halfway up the stairs that connect L’Manburg to the rest of the SMP when they saw Dream walking towards them.

Tommy grabbed Tubbo’s arm as the masked man approached, his expression completely blank. Tubbo looked up at his friend in confusion, wondering what Dream must have done to make Tommy this nervous and scared around him.

“What are you doing? I said you could visit L’Manburg, not the entire SMP,” Dream said calmly as he reached the two, nodding at Punz in greeting.

“Oh, I thought-” Tubbo started, but was cut off by Tommy squeezing his arm in warning, “It’s fine, we’ll leave. Sorry for-”

“Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Punz, can I talk to you real quick?” Dream waved Punz over to him before turning back to Tommy and Tubbo, “Don’t go anywhere. You don’t wanna get kicked out on your first day do you Tommy?”

Tommy glared at Dream as he raised his voice as if he were talking to a four year old, then turned to Tubbo as Dream walked a bit further down the path with Punz.

“They’re gone now, what did he do to you in exile?” Tubbo asked as soon as Dream and Punz were out of earshot.

Tommy sighed and fidgeted with his hands, “I don’t know if I really wanna think about it right now, if that’s okay. It was pretty bad and I’d rather just focus on being back in L’Manburg at the moment.”

Tubbo nodded, frowning slightly. He understood that whatever happened must have been traumatic for Tommy, and if he wasn’t comfortable talking about it then he’d respect that.

“Can I just quickly ask you something,” Tubbo said quietly. Tommy nodded, “You don’t have to answer but… did Ghostbur give you a compass?”

Shit. The compass. Tommy had completely forgot about it in the panic of the whole… explosion of Logstedshire. It must have gotten blown up with everything else, unless he’d managed to put it in his ender chest…

“Yeah, but I think I lost it, it might be in my ender chest though. Why do you ask?”

“Um, well… he gave me one too. I kept it on me for ages, it never left my hand. But then I um, I went hunting for mob heads and I lost all my things to a creeper. I’m really sorry Tommy, I tried to make a new one but it just wasn’t the same.”

“It’s fine, just-“ Tommy started, then suddenly paused. Tubbo frowned, confused.

“Tommy? Are you okay, what’s wrong?” It wasn’t normal for Tommy to just stop like that in the middle of a sentence; he was always much too talkative. He followed Tommy's gaze to see where he was looking and his eyes met with Dream's as the man stared at Tommy, all his emotions concealed by that damn mask.

Tommy paled slightly and his eyes shifted to the floor just in front of Dream's feet. Tubbo didn’t know what made Tommy so scared of him, but either way he was growing more and more concerned.

An uncomfortable silence settled upon the four of them once Dream had finished whispering with Punz. They all stood there, not wanting to be the one to break the silence. The awkward emptiness seemed to last for an hour, although it couldn’t have been more than a minute.

Dream ended up being the one to speak up.

“Well I better be going now. Punz, remember what we discussed. Tommy, behave. You don't wanna find out what happens if you don't,” He threw another ender pearl and with that, he was gone, leaving Punz with Tommy and Tubbo yet again.

~

It was hot inside the bakery, the windows were slightly steamed up from the oven but the people inside were happy and working away on many delicious cakes and baked treats.

Ranboo was happier than he had been for a while, having written down the events of the past few days in his memory book. After a lot of panic, the memory of the burning remains of Logstedshire had left his mind, but he'd made sure to document it for later.

He and Niki had just finished making the batter for Eret's birthday cake, and from sneaky 'taste tests', he could tell that it was going to be delicious.

They'd been working away in the bakery for over an hour now, whisking up plenty of cupcakes and cookies, when there was a knock at the door.

“Just a minute!” Niki called before Ranboo rushed to the window to see who it was.

“It’s Eret," Ranboo whispered, and he and Niki frantically scrambled to hide Eret's birthday gifts that lay on one of the tables in the bakery. The presents were thrown (as carefully as possible) into cupboards and drawers, while the cakes and other treats were put everywhere that Eret couldn't see, some in the fridge, some in the back room that only Niki had the key to, and a few cookies were stuffed in cupboards with the presents, along with other random spots in the small bakery.

One spot in particular was not where someone would expect a cake to be, and that was in a shower upstairs. To be fair, it was a rather large cake and there wasn't anywhere else for it to go. Besides, it wasn’t like the shower was on, so the cake wouldn't get wet.

Once they were finally happy with their excellent hiding skills, Niki and Ranboo went to open the door for Eret, looking red in the face and out of breath.

"Woah, are you guys okay? Is something going on in there?" Eret asked with a laugh, pointing out their flustered states. Ranboo started to stammer out an excuse, but eventually gave up, putting Niki on the spot to talk.

"We were just making a cake, that's all! I accidentally knocked over a bag of flour while doing an excellent performance of Angelica in 'the Schuyler sisters'. We had to clean that up as well as the mess we'd made by spilling cake batter on the floor…" Niki trailed off, realising that she was rambling.

"Oh, that's totally fine! I just stopped by to pick up some cookies for Puffy. She left them to cool overnight because they were too hot to take home yesterday. They're just in the fridge if you don't want me to come in," Eret said, smiling.

Ranboo nodded quickly and all but ran to the fridge, collecting the box of cookies and handing them to Eret. Niki and Ranboo waved goodbye as Eret left with the cookies, closing the door and letting out a breath neither of them had realised they were holding, then started to laugh at how very awkward that interaction just was.

"So are we gonna go around and collect all the cookies and cakes from throwing them in random places? Not gonna lie, I kinda forgot where half of them are already…" Ranboo finally said, walking over to the shelves and searching for stray cookies.

Niki laughed and went upstairs to collect the shower-cake. That was a close one.

~

Dream had just left Punz to babysit the child and was walking down the prime path aimlessly when he caught a glimpse of pink disappear behind a tree. Curious, he approached the tree only to find that whatever had been there had disappeared.

 _Strange_ , he thought, _I could've sworn I saw…_

His thought trailed off as the flash of pink reappeared in the corner of his eye, this time followed by what looked like the tip of a wing and a quick burst of frantic whispering. Something was clearly up, and Dream didn't hesitate to investigate.

He slowly made his way over to where he'd heard the whispering and was met by three people he hadn't seen in a while, one of which was not allowed to be in the area.

Philza, Technoblade and Ghostbur stood huddled behind a building, expressions of shock and annoyance written on their faces.

"What an… unexpected surprise," Dream said, crossing his arms across his chest, "Aren't you supposed to be far away from L'Manburg, Techno? Last I heard you weren't welcome within a hundred feet. This certainly crosses that line..."

Techno adjusted his posture and his expression hardened, "Did you really expect me, an anarchist, to abide by government law? Besides, it's not like I'm even in L'Manburg. There's no law against being in the SMP land."

"Of course there isn't, but sneaking around and trying to stay hidden doesn't exactly give off the impression that you intend to stay where you're allowed. I'm not stupid, Technoblade. I know why you're here."

Dream leant against a wall, looking a lot more casual and relaxed than the men in front of him. They quite honestly looked like they'd been caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and Dream could tell that they were there for a reason.

"Oh really? Why are we here then?" Phil asked, glaring at Dream.

"Oh come on now, it's obvious you're here for Tommy," Dream said, causing Phil to tighten his grip on his shield, "Hey, why the glaring? I haven't done anything."

"Don't pretend I don't know what you've done, Dream. Tommy didn't get all those bruises and scars from nowhere," said Phil. He tried to force the image of his shivering son out of his head and continued, "You're a monster, you know. You manipulated and abused my son. You've caused so much damage and I will never forgive you."

Dream smiled under his mask as he watched a single tear travel down the old man's face.

"Oh, Philza. Don't you realise that I don't care about your opinion of me. I don't care that you hate me and will 'never forgive me'," he stepped towards Phil until they were mere inches apart, "It's getting much too fun to let everything go now. I'm not even started with-"

"Stop."

Dream turned to face Ghostbur, who had spoken for the first time. He raised an eyebrow at the ghost's newfound confidence.

"Stop talking. This is getting too much. I can't… I can't deal with all this," Ghostbur scrunched his face up and backed up until he was against the wall behind him. He slid his back down the wall and sat on the floor.

"You've done a lot of bad things, Dream. And I know you don't care but you have hurt a lot of people. This isn't right, you shouldn't have so much control over everything that you can literally abuse a child and not suffer any consequences whatsoever. I know I'm just a stupid ghost but listen to me, Dream," he looked up to face the masked man, "This needs to stop. You need to step back and not hurt any more people."

There was a brief moment of silence, which was broken by a small bitter laugh from Dream.

"Really? You want me to leave everything alone so you can live your silly little lives in peace?"

"Yes! That's exactly what we want! Thank you for finally-" Ghostbur started but was cut off by another laugh from Dream.

"Don't you get it? This is my server. I do what I want here and no one can do anything about it! It's just so entertaining watching everything crumble in my hand. I could just blow everything up and be done with it but it's so much more fun to play puppeteer and get in your heads. You know what? I could just kill you all right now and no one would care!" Dream mocked, taking out his sword.

He swung the blade like a madman, spinning it in his hand and almost daring them to challenge him.

"What's the matter? Scared?" He taunted and pointed his sword at Phil's neck, grinning madly as he blocked Techno's axe with his shield, "Keep up, pig man. You seem to have gotten rusty!"

"STOP!" Ghostbur shouted, immediately backing away and covering his mouth as Dream started to walk towards him.

"Is this too much for you, Wilbur? Pity, if you were alive you'd be encouraging fights."

"I'm not him, Dream. Don't talk about Wilbur you're going to-"

"Why not? Wilbur was great. Shame he went and got himself blown up though, he could've been... useful," Dream watched as Ghostbur tried to make himself smaller. His hands were over his ears and his eyes were screwed shut, "You're so weak. Someone mentions Wilbur and you're already close to tears. I'd almost pity you if it weren't for-"

"Don't you dare speak to him like that," Technoblade said darkly. Dream turned to face him, smiling.

"Would you rather I tell you how terrible of a person you are, Techno? I could be here for days, there's so many-"

"I'd rather you leave, Dream."

Techno stood still, glaring at his rival until the silence was interrupted by a sound from Dream's pocket.

Dream looked down and reached into his pocket, pulling out his phone and reading a message on the screen. His smile widened and he looked up at Techno and Phil (Ghostbur was still sitting against the wall).

"Looks like I'll be doing just that. I'll see you around, probably a lot sooner than I'd anticipated."

He threw an ender pearl towards L'Manburg and Techno threw a quick middle finger at him as Dream teleported away.

"Well. That was a total of, what… ten minutes? Ten minutes before we got caught?" Phil said with a small laugh, "We don't even know where Tommy is, how are we gonna-"

He was cut off by Techno slapping his hand on his mouth.

"Shhh… I don't think we're alone," he said, eyes scanning the land for any sign of movement. He saw none, but that bad feeling still lingered. "We better get going. Ghostbur, please don't run off to hug the sheep."

Ghostbur's face fell and he walked back over to Phil and Techno after wandering off after a sheep he'd spotted across the path.

"But he's fluffy, Techno! He's so friendly!"

Techno sighed and gestured for Phil to follow him and Ghostbur to the sheep, defeated. Ghostbur approached it cautiously, not wanting to alarm it, before slowly but surely petting it on the head.

"Look, Phil! He likes me!" he said, face lighting up with happiness, "I think I'll name you Friend. Awww, you're so soft!"

Friend looked up at Ghostbur and nuzzled his face into his new friend's hand. A wide smile broke out onto Ghostbur's face as he hugged the sheep, then turned back to look at Phil.

"Can we keep him, Phil? Pleeaase?"

Sighing, Phil nodded and Ghostbur ran up and hugged him, well, he hugged him as well as a ghost can hug someone. Phil pushed him back gently, memories of the button room quickly resurfacing.

"Come on, we actually have to go now," Techno said over Phil's shoulder and the trio made their way along the shadows that the evening sun was casting, careful to not make a sound and alert anyone of their presence. Techno directed them silently towards a small forest off the edge of L'Manburg, where they relaxed after making sure they weren't followed.

But they had been followed, and they weren't aware of a single thing that was about to happen.

~

Resuming their cake, Niki and Ranboo started to make the icing, settling on rainbow colours 'because gay'. They had been shout-singing to 'dancing queen' while baking for a few minutes before Niki spotted something out the window.

Putting down the bowl of sprinkles she'd just spilled on the counter, Niki made her way over to the window to see what was going on. Ranboo noticed that Niki had moved and asked her if she was alright. She responded with a muffled 'yeah', distracted by the thing (or rather, things) outside.

She couldn't quite see them properly, but Niki was sure that there were three people outside who were trying to not be seen (and failing, clearly). Feeling the sudden urge to investigate, she told Ranboo she'd be back soon and quickly left the bakery, closing the door behind her.

The warmth of the oven and a slight smell of cookies followed Niki out of the bakery as she went closer to the people, who she could now tell were Technoblade, Philza and someone who looked oddly like… No, surely not. Wilbur died in the explosion, she must be seeing things.

Then again the person following Techno and Phil did walk exactly like Wilbur did, only lighter and more softly. He wore the same beanie, and the same yellow jumper, yet it didn't quite feel like him. Niki was still too far to tell, she'd have to get even closer.

After some risky maneuvering, Niki had followed the three men and their sheep to a small forest and had successfully hidden in a bush, close enough to see that…

It's definitely Will. He looked exactly the same, but… grey? And slightly… transparent.

Realisation hit Niki like a truck and she nearly gasped in shock, but quickly stopped herself before anyone could hear her. Wilbur was a ghost now? That would explain the floatiness and the transparency, but ghosts didn't exist, right?

Clearly not, Niki thought as she let out a small sigh of relief. She hadn't seen any trace of Will since the 16th of November, and that was almost two months ago. She'd thought that he had died in the explosion, and maybe she had been right, but Wilbur was here and… not quite alive, but he had consciousness and that was enough.

She had to reveal herself, she had to speak to Will again.

Ready to get up, Niki placed her hands on the floor to push herself upwards but hesitated as she heard a noise.

"Great. You're here," she heard Dream's unmistakable voice behind her.

She whipped around, scared that she'd been caught but breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that Dream wasn't talking to her. Deciding it would probably be best to stay put for the moment, Niki sat back down on the ground as quietly as she could and kept an ear out for what Dream was saying.

“Of course I’m here, you literally asked me to be here at this exact time. I’m a punctual guy, green man,” said a second voice that Niki didn’t quite recognise. Looking through the trees, she could see someone walking up to Dream. They were tall, possibly too tall (how can a person be that tall?) and their face was covered by a mask not too dissimilar from Dream’s, but was in the shape of a creeper rather than a smiley face.

“Are they near?” the other person continued, “Punz is still babysitting so he can’t help. I’ve alerted Sapnap in case we need backup, but I don’t know if he’s here yet.”

Niki didn’t know for sure who they were talking about, but she had her suspicions. She hoped that they were wrong, but they were proven right when Dream spoke up again.

“Right through the forest,” his voice had lowered and Niki had to move a bit closer to hear, “We’ll probably need Sapnap actually, Technoblade’s pretty strong. Speak of the devil!” Dream exclaimed as a third person walked up to the pair, who Niki guessed was Sapnap.

She had gotten over Sapnap murdering her fox, but was still slightly bitter about it and the man was certainly not in her good books from... y'know. The murder.

“Hello, gentlemen! Are we going to the-” Sapnap was quickly cut off, and Niki assumed that Dream had put his hand over his mouth from the muffled shouts of protest that she heard.

“Shh. You don’t know who could be listening. Come on, let’s get going. Sam, you go ahead and I’ll stay back with Sapnap. Remember, don’t let them get suspicious.” Dream warned before the other person, Sam, nodded to the others and walked into the forest.

This is not going to be good, Niki thought and moved behind bushes and trees to get closer to Phil, Techno and Wilbur without being seen. She had to warn them somehow, but couldn’t think of any way to get their attention without Sam noticing.

She caught a bit of Phil and Techno’s conversation before they trailed off as Sam approached. Something about soul sand, but Niki couldn’t think of what that would relate to.

~

“Who are you?” Techno demanded, hand reflexively moving to his crossbow.

“I’m Sam! It’s great to meet you, Technoblade,” the newcomer said, ignoring the crossbow and holding out his hand. Techno didn’t shake it.

“How do you know my name?” he asked, still skeptical of this Sam guy. He’d seen him around Dream before, and was pretty sure they were on good terms. That was never a good sign.

“Are you kidding? Everyone knows you! Techno, you beat _Dream_. That’s hardly something that goes unnoticed,” Techno acknowledged Sam’s point, deciding that was reason enough. Sam continued, “I’ve actually got a surprise for you three,” he said and Ghostbur looked up from playing his guitar to Friend.

“A surprise? I love surprises!” he said brightly, and walked over to Phil, Techno and Sam, Friend following close behind him.

“Wait- Ghostbur, don’t trust him.” Techno said quietly, putting his arm out to stop the ghost, only for Ghostbur to walk right through it, sending his brother a confused expression.

“What are you talking about? Lead the way, Sam!” He exclaimed in his usual upbeat tone. Techno and Phil didn’t exactly look convinced, but decided to go along with it anyway.

How bad could a guy cosplaying a creeper be?

The journey had all started out well, Sam leading the way through the forest, making awkward small talk to pass the time. Ghostbur had taken quite a liking to him and was chatting away about some random topic, not paying much attention to his surroundings as he rambled.

Techno and Phil, on the other hand, were growing more suspicious of Sam with every step. They'd just left the forest and passed Tommy's house, continuing their walk along the prime path as Sam led them further away from the main part of the SMP.

After a few more moments of walking, a large blackstone building came into view. Techno stopped walking, everything in his head screaming at him to turn back and run.

Sam noticed Techno falling behind and stopped, walking back over to the pink-haired man.

"Everything alright?" he asked, turning on his acting skills as if he didn't know exactly what was happening.

"What is this 'surprise' and does it have anything to do with… well, that," Techno asked, gesturing to the building ahead of the group.

Phil followed Techno's stare and noticed the sinister building in the distance, eyes immediately widening and he stepped beside his son.

"Yeah, I'd like to know what's going on as well, Sam," he said.

Sam suppressed a smile, opting for a confused look as he responded with, "I don't know what you mean. A surprise is a surprise and I have no idea what that building is." 

He subtly pressed a button on his belt which sent a signal to Dream. They had started to catch on, but everything was going to plan so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading chapter 8, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, the next chapter should be up soon, if we remember lol
> 
> Chapters 1 to some of 10 have already been written, so we'll be uploading a new chapter every week or so.
> 
> Again, thanks for reading and any feedback is very much appreciated, so pls feel free to leave a comment :)
> 
> -disco


	10. hey again lol (a/n)

hello :]

sorry for another authors note instead of chapter 9, just wanted to say that there will probably be a big delay on posts because we aren't very motivated to write at the moment, and also there's a lot of... ahaha um. I'll just say that things at my house aren't too great. I'm okay though, I think. I'm just not in a very writing mood at the moment and I'm sure Wheel isn't either. we will probably take a lil break just to get a bit more motivation (and in my case, give my parents time to sort things out at home) so again I'm very sorry but there won't be a chapter out soon.

hope everyone's vibing and staying safe :]

seeya soon gamers,  
disco


	11. Things go worse ~ 9 ~ 7th Jan 2021

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahahahah y'all aren't ready
> 
> angst for the angst gods :)
> 
> this is probably the longest chapter yet it took so long hhhh

_⚠️ CW: Fighting, light gore, main character death ⚠️_

After Sam had left Dream and Sapnap, they'd stayed clear of where Techno, Phil and Ghostbur were so they didn't bring about any suspicion.

The two were hiding in a tree, with a perfect view of Sam leading the group away. A few awkward minutes of waiting went by, with Sapnap making fruitless attempts at conversation every now and then.

“So… How are you and George doing? Last I heard you were-” Sapnap asked, before getting cut off by his friend in the tree.

“Sapnap, Shut up. Sam messaged me, we need to go, try not to be annoying.” That wasn’t the response Sapnap was expecting.

“Umm… sure, let’s go.”

They jumped out of the tree, Dream landing gracefully in a stance that didn’t look too dissimilar from one that spiderman would land in, one leg slightly bent, the other stretched out with his hand resting on the floor. He looked up just in time to see Sapnap attempt to copy his stance, only to trip half way down and land on his face. How someone could mess it up that badly, Dream wasn't sure. Trying to hold in a laugh, he bent down to help his friend to his feet only to burst out laughing, wheezing like a tea kettle at seeing the confused look on Sapnap’s face. 

“Hey, no laughing.” Sapnap coughed awkwardly, only to make Dream wheeze harder.

“S-sorry, sorry. You're right, we should concentrate.” Dream calmed down, taking a few deep breaths before composing himself and making his way to the prime path.

“Come on then, we don’t wanna keep Sam waiting,” Sapnap mumbled before following his friend. The walk was uneventful; they had decided to pretend to be heading to Skeppy and Bad's house, when they actually wanted to ’unintentionally’ run into a certain group of people.

And run into those people, they did.

Sapnap and Dream were both quite good actors from being theatre kids since they were nine, so when they eventually came across the small group, it was quite easy to pretend that they were surprised to run into them. 

“Oh, hey Sam! Didn’t know you were out here, where are you going?” Sapnap asked, putting on his most innocent voice without sounding too unlike himself.

“Hey guys! I’m just taking my friends to a surprise that I made for them," Techno narrowed his eyes at Dream, who simply waved back, a fake smile on his face, "Since it looks like you guys are heading that way too, d'you wanna come with us?” Sam suggested. It all sounded scripted to Dream, but luckily the others seemed to be buying it.

“Yeah sure, Skeppy can wait,” Dream said with a shrug. Of course Skeppy wasn't actually waiting for them but they had to have a story.

And so off they went, walking in silence for the most part, except the occasional happy whisperings from Ghostbur to Friend. In a way it could have been considered peaceful, that is if peace is a heavily awkward silence, where almost everyone is reading to whip out a weapon and fight to the death at the slightest movement.

Everyone could feel the tension rising as they walked further, so it was almost a relief when their destination came into view. Dream smiled slightly, hidden mostly by his mask. It was surprisingly easy to get this far, he just hoped that it would stay that way and a certain Technoblade wouldn't mess everything up. Sure, Dream was prepared for the worst outcome (and fully expected to be met with it) yet that didn’t mean the man couldn’t hope for everything else to go smoothly.

The plan itself was rather simple, only needing to do one simple thing to lead to a chain reaction that would inevitably bring about his victory. He knew what he had to do, and looking at Sam and Sapnap, he could tell they did too.

And so, phase one was put into action.

No one noticed Dream pulling out his crossbow until they heard the unmistakable twang of the bowstring, followed by a dull thud as its target hit the ground. Sure, Friend was dead for now, but he had infinite canon lives, so it was fine.

Ghostbur just stared at him, mortified.

“You just- you… YOU JUST SHOT FRIEND, YOU MONSTER!!” he shouted through the tears that had started to flow, voice reverberating around the room. The tears left a soft sizzling sound as they rolled down Ghostbur’s cheeks but he didn’t even flinch from the pain.

Dream’s expression hardened and he reloaded his crossbow, aiming towards Phil this time. Techno immediately withdrew a dagger from a sheath on his calf, moving to disarm Dream but was instead disarmed himself. He looked up and saw Sapnap staring right back at him, an expression of warning written on his face.

Techno narrowed his eyes at the man, drawing an axe and shield from his inventory. He wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

Laughing bitterly, Dream lowered his crossbow. He’d expected this exact reaction from Technoblade, and everything was going perfectly to plan. He just had to fight for a bit to lower Techno’s energy, then he would surely come quietly if even the smallest threat was sent to Phil or Wilbur.

In all the confusion and shock, Techno and Phil hadn't noticed that they'd been pushed back into a blackstone building. It was much smaller than the one they'd seen on the way there, but they still felt that they had to escape.

"Now, now Techno, play nicely. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to dearest Philza, would we?” Dream mocked, putting on his sweetest voice possible as he took out his axe, pressing the blade to Phil's throat. Techno grimaced.

"Don't patronise me, green man. Let him go." It almost sounded like he was growling now, the thought making Dream laugh slightly under his breath.

"I'm good thanks, this is rather entertaining don't you think?" he watched the anger grow in Techno's face. This was too easy.

"You wanna be entertained?" Techno asked, not wanting unnecessary conflict but trying his luck anyway.

Dream just pushed his axe closer to Phil's face, his grin widening. Techno took out another dagger from a sheath on his other leg and stared at his rival.

"Then let's dance, motherfucker."

~

Niki had been hiding outside the building for quite a while, wondering when anyone would come outside. After what seemed like an hour- but what couldn’t have been any more than fifteen minutes- Dream finally walked out. Alone.

 _Strange,_ Niki thought, _didn’t 6 people and a sheep go in there? Where did they go?_

She moved further behind the tree she’d been standing behind for the past quarter of an hour, suddenly nervous. She hadn’t seen anyone else exit the building except for Dream, and was slowly growing more worried with each step the green man took closer to her.

Surely he hadn’t seen her? He’d had his back turned the whole time she was following; unless he had eyes in the back of his head or someone else told him…

Sapnap had seen her though.

_Someone else told him._

Shit.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Niki set off running towards the bakery, not really thinking why but she knew that she had to run somewhere safe.

Dream sprinted after her, drawing his crossbow back with an arrow tipped with a potion Niki was too panicked to identify. He chased her for a short while, only getting as far as Tommy’s house before Niki felt a sharp pain in her thigh and she cried out, falling to the ground.

Her eyes started to close from exhaustion and pain; the last thing she saw before blacking out was Dream walking up to her body, crossbow by his side.

~

Dream had just left the prison after bringing an unconscious Niki to Sam, instructing him to keep her in a holding cell until she woke up. He’d set off down the prime path once more, the path lit by the evening sun. He felt safe in the knowledge that he’d left the prisoners in capable hands.

Technoblade had put up a pretty lousy fight before giving in and complying. Dream almost pitied the man. Of course, Phil and Ghostbur couldn’t do anything but comply, being much weaker than anyone else.

Recalling how so very easy it was to carry out their plan, Dream smiled under his mask. Surely it couldn’t be that hard to put phase two into action; given how easy it was to get the almighty Technoblade to surrender, it wouldn’t be hard at all to kick a child out of a country.

 _Speak of the devil,_ Dream thought as he spotted Tommy, Tubbo and Punz a bit further ahead on the path. He quickened his pace, catching up with them and scaring the shit out of Tommy as he walked up behind him.

“What the fuck are you doing?” the child asked, recoiling into Tubbo as he realised that the person was Dream.

“Oh… um... I-I’m sorry Dream, I didn’t know it was you.” Tommy muttered, causing Tubbo to look at him, concerned.

“Tommy? Are you okay?” Tubbo asked softly, worried about his friend. Tommy, however, showed no sign that he'd heard Tubbo, his eyes trained on the ground a few feet away. Dream laughed bitterly.

“Tommy,” he replied, his voice cold. The boy nodded, still looking away.

“Tommy, look at me.” Dream walked up to Tommy, grabbing his wrist harshly and dragging him to the edge of L’Manburg. He heard Tubbo's footsteps hurrying after them, but he was held back by Punz.

“I’m going to give you a choice Tommy, okay? You can leave L'Manburg and help them or you can stay for the last day and a half of your visa. If you leave then you are not allowed back, and if you are spotted within this land then it's kill on site. Do you understand?”

“How can I trust that you aren't lying?” Tommy asked, voice shaky.

"Of course you can trust me, I'm your best friend. Now, are you going to be the hero you so desperately want to be or stay here with Tubbo?" replied Dream.

Tommy scrunched his face up, recognising Dream's manipulative tone from his visits in exile. He'd had enough. He was Tommyinnit, and he didn’t take anyone's bullshit anymore. Not even Dream's.

"You're the furthest thing from my best friend, Dream. You manipulated and abused me, and I'm not taking this shit any longer," he looked up at the masked man, a newfound confidence in his glare, "You don't control L'Manburg. We won the war against you all those months ago and I am not about to let you push us around to get what you want from me."

He turned to face Tubbo.

"You're literally the president, you can get me another visa any time," his best friend nodded, wriggling out of Punz's grasp and stepping to Tommy's side.

“Tommy,” Dream snarled, it was more of a warning than a threat, but Tommy ignored it; he was on a roll now.

“So you know what Dream, I don’t give a shi-“ he was cut off by a harsh slap on his face. Tommy stumbled backwards from the impact, his confidence slowly dwindling. Tubbo looked on in shock, now restrained once more, clearly having been caught by Punz.

“I warned you," Dream said, venom dripping from his words, "Once you leave L'Manburg you aren't allowed back. No visits, no visas, nothing. This is my server, I am in charge and it seems you still aren't aware of that.” He unsheathed his axe.

"Woah, woah woah. Hold up you can't-" Tubbo started but quickly cut himself off as he caught Dream's glare.

"You don't wanna make me have to do this, Tommy," the masked man said, his voice unsettlingly calm.

"You won't hurt me, bitch. You've kept me alive this long, why not just finish me off back in exile, huh?" Tommy retorted, "You aren't gonna fight me because I'm the only one who isn't scared of you."

Dream smiled beneath his mask.

"Oh really?"

Tommy frowned and stepped back as the taller man advanced towards him.

"Uh, wait a sec-"

Dream raised the axe above his head and Tommy shut his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable pain.

He'd fucked up. Why did he think this would go to plan? He readied himself for the strike, regretting everything.

Except it never came.

Instead of the sharp blade of an axe, Tommy felt something larger and heavier crash against him, knocking him onto the ground.

He opened his eyes and saw Tubbo's limp body laying on top of him, as well as a lot of blood.

"Wait, what?" he said confusedly, but the cogs turned in his head and he cried out.

"TUBBO!"

Sitting up, he held his friend by the shoulders and saw the large gash that had appeared across his chest.

"Shit, shit, shit. NO! Stay with me, Tubbo. Please. Open your eyes, big man." He frantically tried to hold him up as Tubbo slipped in and out of consciousness, a dazed look in his eyes.

"Tommy…" he whispered, voice hoarse and quiet. Too quiet.

"I'm right here, Tubbo. You're alright. Just stay alive…"

Tubbo started to cough, getting more violent until he was coughing up blood over Tommy's shirt. After a few seconds, the boy's eyes widened and he slumped in Tommy's arms, unconscious.

"Fucking hell, don't go, Tubbo. Don't leave me…" Tommy said through the tears that had started to appear in his eyes. He didn't even care that there was blood on his shirt, all that mattered then was keeping Tubbo alive, "I can't lose you too, come on. Stay with me…"

Tommy broke down, crying into the limp form of his best friend while Dream watched, frowning.

He'd not intended to kill Tubbo, but it did seem to be getting to Tommy. Perhaps this little slip-up could be useful in the long run.

Tommy had stopped crying and looked up at Dream.

If looks could kill, Dream would be so dead.

"You son of a bitch."

He stood up and walked towards the man who'd just killed his best friend. They stood face to face, a look of pure hatred on Tommy's face. Dream's face was as blank as his mask as he stared back at the child.

"Go to hell, motherfucker," Tommy spat and punched Dream right in the face, cracking his mask.

"I'll see you there," he replied, letting the broken ceramic fall onto the floor, only slightly shocked by Tommy's outburst.

Tommy had never actually seen Dream's face before, but he glared into his piercing green eyes as if the mask was still there.

He went to slap the smug smile right off the bastard's face but he felt something clamp around his wrist as he raised his arm. Tommy looked back at his arm and saw Punz gripping it tightly, almost cutting off the circulation to Tommy's hand.

"Don't even think about it," Punz muttered and twisted his hand around Tommy's arm, causing him to fall onto the ground, his wrist feeling like it had been set on fire.

"I'd suggest you leave before L'Manburg finds another child's dead body."

Tommy bit back another wave of tears and looked up at Dream again, mustering up every bit of courage he had left.

"You sicken me, green man. When we meet again, I won't hesitate to slit your throat and rob your corpse of my discs. This isn't over," he spat, scrambling to his feet.

 _This isn't over,_ Tommy thought, _is it though? Everything worth fighting for… everything I've ever cared about has been ripped apart before me._

_Every single thing I've ever loved has been destroyed, whether that was by Dream or Technoblade or anyone else._

Time seemed to slow as thoughts were thrown at him from every angle.

_L'Manburg is gone. Wilbur went down with it. Techno betrayed him all the way back at the festival._

The festival…

It had felt like a decade had passed since the festival. Despite it being already a few months since Schlatt had died, Tommy still heard Tubbo's screams from that stand as he was blasted apart by fireworks fired from Technoblade's rocket launcher.

He still felt the mind-numbing fear and worry of whether his best friend would respawn, whether he'd ever hear that infectious laugh or listen to those hour-long ramblings again.

Even with Tubbo's body lying not too far from where he stood now, Tommy still felt a glimmer of hope that he'd respawn once more.

That hope was smashed as he realised that people didn't leave their bodies behind if they were going to respawn.

Tommy was still slightly in shock, not quite believing that Tubbo was really gone. He looked over at his best friend's body on the ground, distracted momentarily from the raging cloud of anger and pain within his head.

It wasn't fair. Tubbo was a good kid, a great kid, always brightening everyone's day and making them laugh even in the worst of times. He didn't deserve this. He shouldn't have jumped in front of Tommy.

…

_He jumped in front of Tommy._

Tubbo had known what was coming, surely. He'd seen Dream raise his axe, known what would have happened.

But he'd still saved Tommy.

_In sacrificing himself, Tubbo let Tommy live._

"So?"

Dream's harsh voice brought Tommy back to the real world, and the unmistakable sound of an axe being drawn caused him to spin around and face Dream once more.

There was blood on the axe. Tubbo's blood. It was fresh. It was sickening.

"I'll leave, but only if you agree to what I'm about to say," Tommy responded, his voice empty of any emotion, drained from everything he'd just experienced.

Dream nodded slightly, urging Tommy to continue.

"You will never lay a finger on anyone else on this server. You've caused way too much damage than worth, and I'm sick of your shit, Dream. This isn't right. I bet you don't even feel the slightest bit of regret from just slicing Tubbo in half-"

Tommy’s voice broke and he stopped himself from talking, the mental image of his best friend lying dead on the ground still fresh in his mind. He shut his eyes tight and tried to shake away the thought, but it only grew worse.

The image of Tubbo's body woke up and looked right at him. Tubbo’s eyes were blinding white, staring into Tommy’s soul blankly. Tommy looked on in horror, unable to open his eyes and escape this nightmare as Tubbo's face morphed into Wilbur's, then it spoke.

_"You're never gonna be president Tommy. You're just a pathetic, useless child and I don't even know why I thought you'd be a good right hand man."_

Wilbur stood up and walked over to Tommy, the ground beneath his feet glitching and distorting as he got closer and closer.

His footsteps echoed in Tommy's head, sounding eerily similar to when Wilbur would pace the ravine in Pogtopia, growing less sane by the day.

Wilbur finally reached Tommy, and he could now see his features clearly, noticing that his eyes were devoid of life and the light that had shone in them back before everything went to shit.

His face started to warp and Tommy saw a large gash appear in Wilbur's chest. Blood started to pour out of the stab wound and Wilbur just smiled as he sunk to his knees.

_"My great unfinished symphony…"_

Tommy winced as Wilbur's distorted voice rang in his ears.

_"Forever unfinished… My L'Manburg…”_

Wilbur started to choke on his own blood, reminding Tommy of his best friend dying in his arms just a minute ago.

_“It was never meant to be."_

With a final horrifying gasp, Wilbur collapsed and Tommy finally returned to the real world, finding himself on the floor once again, out of breath and sweating.

He saw a brief look of concern on Punz's face, before the man looked away, suddenly interested in the grass.

He couldn't bring himself to look at Dream.

Turning his back on Punz and Dream, Tommy took a final glance at Tubbo.

His Tubbo.

He'd failed to keep him safe, and Tommy hated himself for it but for now, he had to leave.

Mourning would have to wait, he had to get out of L'Manburg or Dream would actually kill him this time.

 _Perhaps that isn't too bad of an option, at least I'd get to see Tubbo again,_ Tommy thought but shook his head inwardly. Tubbo would have wanted him to carry on.

Tubbo would have wanted Tommy to save himself.

~

Niki awoke a few times, only to fall unconscious again once the pain kicked in. The first time she woke up she was being carried by someone, slung over their shoulder like a ragdoll. She tried to keep her eyes open and get a good look at her surroundings, but she was unsuccessful, falling unconscious after only a few seconds.

The second time she couldn’t even open her eyes, only being able to hear snippets of conversation before passing out again; "Cells 42 through 44…", "We’ll have to tie back the wings…", "Yeah, she's going in 45…", “Of course not! Do I look like an idiot?...”

The third time she woke up, Niki was fully awake. She groggily took in her surroundings, noticing how cold and uncomfortable she was. With a start, she quickly realised where she’d been taken. Scrambling to her feet, and wincing slightly as she barely registered the untreated wound on her thigh, Niki looked around at the formidable blackstone walls. Panic grew in her chest.

“Shit. _Shit_. No, this isn’t real. I’m not…” she trailed off as she heard shouts from outside the room she was in.

“Don’t hurt them. I swear, you can torture me all you want but if you lay a finger on my family I’ll make you regret it.”

Niki quickly walked over to the locked door of her cell, looking out at the people in the corridor through some bars. She saw two people in guard uniforms escorting a tall man with pink hair down what seemed to be an endless blackstone hallway. Another guard was close in front of them, holding another prisoner that Niki couldn’t quite see.

“No mercy for war criminals,” one of the guards said. Niki could recognise his voice anywhere, but didn’t know why Dream trusted _Sapnap_ of all people in a position of responsibility.

“I’m the only war criminal here Sapnap, my family have nothing to do with it.” The pink-haired man snarled.

“Oh shut up Technoblade, you don’t want to wake up the other prisoner, do you?” The other guard spoke up. Niki assumed he was referring to her and started to panic, realising that they'd notice she had come to.

“Wait, someone else is here?” Niki's heart sank as she recognised the other prisoner’s voice. _What had Phil done to get locked up here? He's the kindest man on the server!_

Footsteps approached the door of her cell and she stumbled away from the bars towards the back of the dimly lit room, the movement being enough to get the attention of the men in the corridor.

Everyone turned to look through the bars and into the cell Niki was in. Phil seemed to be the first one to recognise her; she watched how his eyes widened slightly after noticing the wound on her leg and her blood soaked trousers. She hadn’t even noticed it before, not being able to see very well in the cell and being in such a state of shock that she wasn't sure that she could even feel the pain anymore.

The awkward moment of silence and staring was broken when Phil and Techno were pushed into their own cells. Technoblade was in the cell next to Niki's, with Phil on the other side of him.

A few minutes passed and once she was sure that the guards had left, Niki walked over to the wall that she and Techno shared.

"Technoblade? Is that you?"

She heard movement on the other side of the wall, and soon she heard a quiet "Yeah."

Running her hand through her hair, Niki let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"Are you and Phil the only other people that were brought here?" she asked, noticing that ghost Wilbur hadn't been with them and the guards.

A short silence followed her question, and then a sigh.

"We weren't. Phil and I came to L'Manburg to look out for Tommy in case something went wrong. We came here with Ghostbur, and clearly Dream has better instincts than I'd anticipated."

On the other side of the wall, Techno slumped against the blackstone, exhausted. They'd taken every precaution to not be seen, but somehow he'd gotten his family into danger again.

"Ghostbur?" Niki whispered, her voice barely audible.

"Oh, uh… I thought you'd… um. Well, this is, uh…" Techno stammered. He hadn't realised that Niki didn't know Wilbur had died, let alone became a ghost.

"You see, when Wilbur... died-" he winced. He hadn't wanted to think about his dead brother again, yet here he was explaining how exactly it had happened.

"When he died, he didn't really… he didn't _fully_ die. He had, sort of, unfinished business of some kind."

“Wait… Let me get this straight," Techno heard Niki say quietly from the other side of the wall. From her now slightly muffled voice he could tell that she'd walked to the other side of her cell, further away from him, "Will is still technically alive and has been for months? And no one told me?”

Her voice cracked at the end of the sentence, and everyone fell quiet. Techno didn't have the heart to tell Niki that Ghostbur didn't remember her.

“Niki?” Came Phil’s voice, very muffled as he was two cells over but comforting all the same, "What happened to your leg?"

She'd almost forgotten about that.

Niki looked down at the blood soaked fabric clinging to her leg, a large tear down the side. She couldn't bring herself to look any further at the actual wound.

"I can't remember exactly, the last thing I saw was Dream pulling out his crossbow so I'm guessing he shot me…" she trailed off and shut her eyes, the image of the green man's sadistic smile flashing in her mind.

"You'd have thought they would at least bandage it. I'm sure the property value goes down if there's blood on the walls," Techno said quietly, clearly trying to lighten the mood.

"Is there anything in your cell that you could use to clean the wound?" came Phil's muffled voice.

Niki squinted, scanning the dark cell for any clean material that could come in handy. Unfortunately she found nothing.

Wincing from the pain shooting up her leg, Niki stumbled over to the other side of her cell so that she could hear Techno and Phil better.

"Nothing here. All I have that could help would have to be my hoodie but I don't really want to get blood on it…" she sighed and sat against the wall, stretching her legs out in front of her.

"There isn't really another option, it'll have to do," Phil said and walked Niki through bandaging up her leg with her hoodie as best as he could from the cell on the other side of Techno's. Soon Niki's leg was bandaged, very inefficiently but at least it somewhat worked.

Silence hung in the air for a few moments, the three prisoners lost in their own thoughts when suddenly an ear-splitting scream pierced through the prison walls.

Phil's eyes widened as he recognised the pain in the scream, and his heart dropped as he realised who must have screamed.

"Techno…?" he asked, voice shaky, "That was him wasn't it?"

Technoblade's mind was barely functioning from the voices going mad inside his head.

_Wilbur  
he's in trouble  
save him  
Wilbur  
technosave  
E  
save him  
save your brother  
Wilbur  
blood for the blood god  
save him  
save him  
save him  
Wilbur  
E  
he's in trouble_

He could barely register Phil talking to him in the next cell over.

Niki had started to panic.

That scream felt oddly familiar, but she didn't recall ever hearing it before.

A thought entered her mind, and her eyes widened as she silently begged for it to not be true. However, as she heard Techno muttering to himself about Wilbur, Niki realised that the thought was correct.

Ghostbur was in trouble, and there was nothing that she nor Techno or Phil could do to save him.

~

Ghostbur wasn’t entirely sure where he was; the last thing he remembered was going on an adventure with his new friend Sam, then he woke up in this small, dark room.

The room itself didn’t have many features, blackstone walls, obsidian ceiling and floor, a large mirror on one wall and a… water sprinkler? Ghostbur wasn’t really sure if that’s what was on the ceiling, but it was his best guess.

The room, although bare, sent a shiver down his spine (he didn’t know that could happen to ghosts), even more so when he suddenly heard a voice echoing around the room.

Dream.

“Ah, Ghostbur. How nice of you to join us! I take it you don’t know where you are and your little ghost brain is confused. Let me fill you in. I caught you, Technoblade and Philza sneaking around my SMP so I brought you to this prison. Yay, exciting, I know," Ghostbur could hear the sarcasm.

"You are currently in a cell, surrounded by sprinklers-“ _So they were sprinklers,_ “You know what happens when it rains, don’t you Ghostbur?" a bitter laugh reverberated across the cell, ringing in Ghostbur's ears.

"Have fun! I'm sure you'll love it.”

Ghostbur knew what happens in the rain alright, but he didn’t quite understand how that would have anything to do with his situation right now.

"Rain melts you," he quickly whispered to himself, "Rain is water, water melts you. Sprinklers spray water, there are sprinklers on the ceiling…"

"Water melts you," Dream's taunting voice echoed.

Water melts you. Water melts you. 

Dream was going to turn on the sprinklers.

Ghostbur started to panic, frantically looking around for a way to escape. He couldn't find anything but obsidian and blackstone, “Dream, please no, I melt in the rain, it hurts me, no, please don't, Dream-“ his rambling was cut off by a quiet laugh,

“Congratulations, you figured it out.”

Then the water turned on, and Ghostbur screamed.

Water sizzled as soon as it touched him, leaving burns which started to melt his translucent skin. This was a lot more water then he was used to handling, with the water from the sprinklers collecting on the ground.

Ghostbur floated upwards, pleading for Dream to turn the water off. Soon he reached the ceiling. There was nowhere else to go. He was stuck.

"DREAM! PLEASE! TURN IT OFF, LET ME GO!" he yelled as the steadily rising water reached his feet.

He screamed again and pressed his body against the ceiling of the cell, shrinking back from the water as it approached. He looked down at his feet and saw that the water had started to melt them, distorting whatever matter he was made up of as it steadily climbed up Ghostbur's legs.

The water level had risen considerably and it was almost touching his face. Ghostbur screwed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the inevitable when suddenly, it stopped.

Opening his eyes, he could see the water about a foot away from him. It was dangerously close, but at least it wasn't going to get any higher.

Relief flooded through him for a moment, until he heard Dreams mocking laugh again.

“You didn’t think I was done did you? It wouldn’t be any fun if you just died quickly. No, I think I'll leave you with your little swimming pool for a bit but don’t worry, I’ll be back later!” Ghostbur could hear the smirk in Dream's voice, before he was left alone once more, and now he noticed he was left in complete darkness. No light. No company. No escape. Only the water around him.

The water that would kill him if he so much as touched it.

The water that was just a foot away from his face.

Even though his fear was enough to power a car, Ghostbur was exhausted after holding himself up against the ceiling for such a long time. Maybe if he just closed his eyes for a second, ghosts didn’t need to sleep, but for Ghostbur it was less of a necessity and more something to calm his nerves. Yeah, he would close his eyes for just a second, nothing bad could happen if he just…

Ghosts didn't need to sleep, but as Ghostbur gently closed his eyes and his control over his body relaxed, he started to slip into unconsciousness, completely unaware of his body slowly descending from the ceiling he'd tried so hard to stick to.

As he finally shifted into sleep, Ghostbur lost the final grip he had on his body and he fell.

He fell.

Ghostbur fell into the water.

Needless to say he didn't sleep for very long, and he didn't know if he'd ever sleep again after feeling pain that intense.

He jolted awake, now submerged in the water and quickly developing burns all over his body.

The noise that he made sounded almost animalistic, a piercing scream erupting from his mouth, muffled from the water but gut-wrenching all the same.

He flew up to the top of the cell, where he could escape the pain that was searing through his limbs as they started to melt.

Once Ghostbur had reached the air and was safely against the ceiling once more, he held his hand in front of his face and stared at it as he lost all capability of moving his fingers, before the translucent matter that once was his hand started to blister and distort, melting away.

He had to get out of here.

But he couldn't see any way out of the cell, vision blurry from pain. Ghostbur looked at the mirror on one of the walls and realised that it must be a one-way window and the only person he thought of that could be behind it was Dream.

He tried to cry out, beg for mercy, but he couldn't find it in him to scream any more. Instead he stared directly in the middle of the window, hoping that Dream would see and let him out.

On the other side of the wall, a man wearing a brand new porcelain mask simply stared back at the slowly melting figure on the ceiling.

He smiled to himself as he pressed the button to drain the room, watching as the water slowly retreated back into the floor and the ghost sighed in relief.

~

“Hey Punz,” Dream said as he walked up to his friend. It had been a day since they’d last seen each other.

A day since he’d killed the president.

The president.

At the time he hadn’t really thought about it, but surely he’d face some political consequences for that. He’d only really thought of Tubbo’s death as another way to piss off Tommy. Shit.

 _Eh, it’s fine,_ he thought as Punz waved at him in greeting, _I’m the higher power here. They can’t really do anything to me._

“Hey Dream,” said Punz, bringing Dream back from his thoughts, “How did the Wilbur plan go?”

“Oh, it went right to plan. Maybe even better. Techno and Phil must be pissed,” He replied, smiling at the thought of his rival begging him to let his brother go.

“Great, what’s the next move? Tommy’s probably back at Techno’s house already so we can’t really do much to him yet…”

“I have a couple of things up my sleeve. Perhaps we should go after Ranboo next; he seems pretty easy to get to.”

“Ok, I left Tubbo’s body and a couple things that would lead people to suspect Sam. He hasn’t really done much for us other than build the prison of course. He isn’t very valuable.”

“Perfect, I was thinking of firing the guy anyway. He changes sides easily, I can’t trust him with anything,” Dream frowned as he recalled Sam trying to give Techno tips on escaping. At least it was fun dealing with him afterwards.

“Right, I’m gonna head home. Make sure someone finds Tubbo- preferably Ranboo.”

“Yessir,” Punz replied and watched as Dream turned and walked away towards the prison. Everything was going to plan.

Everything was going perfectly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 🦀 tubbo is gone crabrave 🦀 JSJDJDKCKC
> 
> the Google doc is very nearly almost at 100 pages ;-;
> 
> \- disco


End file.
